The Perfect Gentleman
by RoseBelikov'at'Nyx.Vamp
Summary: AU. When Ianto rushed outside at the ball so he didn't accidentally punch anyone in the face, that definitely wasn't what he was expecting.
1. The Perfect Gentleman

**First time posting in a new fandom and it's scary :/ Never written Torchwood before, so basically, i just hope you guys all like this i guess. Feedback is always welcomed.**

**Over and out xxx**

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The glittering lights seemed to wink in and out of existence as they flitted and sparkled around him as he span, while the rest of the room flew past as one big multicoloured blur. He had been taught how to waltz at such a young age that it was second nature to him not just to let his feet lead him without even thinking about what he was doing, but to do so without even noticing. His mind had been left to wander as he gently grasped his partner and spun her around the ballroom floor.

Ianto Jones was the perfect gentleman. Everyone said so.

He always pulled a chair out for a woman, held the door open for anyone coming in through it behind him, would greet you in the street and nod politely even when he was busy. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find anyone in Cardiff who disliked him, at least that knew him properly.

He was the darling of every party, every soiree, and all the women wanted to dance with him whenever there was a function that required it. Attentive to every conversation, always relied upon to be witty and satirical when it was needed, yet compassionate and clever as well, people marvelled at how someone could possess such wonderful qualities and not have any perceivable flaws.

So much so that if anyone in the garishly decorated and over-lavishly furnished grand ballroom had been privy to Ianto's thoughts as he span around the floor, head tilted at the perfect angle, they would have probably been shocked by what they would have observed.

Because despite his perfect demeanour, he was at that moment engaged in actively despising each and every person in the room, with only a few possible exceptions. He hated the ridiculousness of the decorations and the over-zealous staff who would do anything as long as you had enough money to demand it. He hated the elderly men in their too-tight tuxedos and suits, who were standing next to their equally as old wives but every now and then secretly sneaking glances at the younger women and craftily peeking down the tops of the waitresses.

He hated their wives just as much though, their make-up caked onto their sixty or seventy year old faces like they had applied it with a trowel, eyeshadow too bright and lips too dark. Their pretences and smug gazes and the way they held themselves, their chins raised and noses pointed upwards, so that everyone knew that they were beneath them.

And in his book the younger generation, his peers, were just as bad. The men all fit their suits properly, and the women either knew how to properly apply make-up or could pay someone who did, but it was all false, all just cold and calculated to achieve maximum excellence, maximum impact. It was a contest between them, which woman, which girl, could get to dance with which men, whom amongst them might be noticed the most by those eligible bachelors in the room, and which men could get the most females following them around, hoping for one more dance, one more touch, one more word whispered in their ear.

And the thing he hated most of all?

The attention of most of the women in the room was squarely focused on him, and him alone, and he neither wanted or encouraged it. In fact, had he been able to actively discourage it without setting alarm bells ringing, he would have been doing. But unfortunately someone would notice. So he had to act the part and treat everyone cordially, and hope to hell that it would be enough to get him through the next few years.

He could sense the woman he was dancing with was looking hard at him, as if by willing him to look back at her he would turn his head. She was stunningly gorgeous of course, a model type figure with evenly tanned skin and long, straight blonde hair that matched her clear blue eyes perfectly. He was pretty sure that she was called Arabella, and even without knowing her last name he could guess that it had a 'the third' tacked onto the end of it, like only the best people did.

But at that moment, he found himself giving even less of a fuck than usual about what she thought about him. He was eager to get out of her arms, to get her piercing stare off his face, to melt back into the crowd and perhaps slip away for a few minutes just to be alone.

It wasn't that he didn't like her, didn't find her attractive, didn't think she would make someone a lovely wife someday, but it wouldn't be him. He hadn't found anyone yet that he wanted to be his wife, and even the person who was destined to be so didn't inspire any romantic feelings in him.

That wasn't to say he didn't like Lisa, didn't love her as a sister, but he didn't really want to marry her, even though he knew that they would be happy in it just as friends. He didn't want to deprive her of the relationship he just knew was out there for her.

Their families were big shots in society, had aristocratic names and backgrounds as well as extremely successful modern business ventured between them, and it seemed like a match made in heaven, at least to their parents. They had been set up to be a couple since before they had both been able to talk, and it seemed like everyone knew that Ianto Jones and Lisa Hallet would end up together. The women still tried to work their magic on him, and the men still tried to get Lisa's attention, but to no avail.

Even if neither of them felt romantically towards the other at all, they both knew that marrying the other was the best they were going to get in their circumstances. Neither could abide the perfectly horrible and poisonous atmosphere of their social circle, or the noxious personalities of some of the more dominant members of it, and marrying each other, someone that they would be happy to spend the rest of their life with even if not actually romantically, was the perfect way out.

If only he could find a suitable way out of the dance, he would be happy.

And then, as if some deity were smiling upon him, the music started to draw to a close, and couples all around him were stopping and bowing and smiling as they parted ways, or strolled off the dance floor together. Which gave him his out, and he took it quickly.

Kissing Arabella's hand, he murmured 'Thank you' and then smiled fleetingly in her direction, hardly even long enough to clock the fluttering eyelashes and pouting mouth, before quickly disappearing into the crowd that was milling around the edge of the floor. He knew that people might have noticed his much more abrupt than normal departure, but he really just needed to get to the bar and find himself a drink. Or find Toshiko, who was just as good as strong liquor usually.

He finally made it to the bar, the gilded edge of which shone even in the muted light, and was about to order a drink when a voice spoke from his right.

"One scotch, neat, and a gin and tonic please."

He turned, smiling widely as he took in the young woman next to him.

"Hi Tosh. I was wondering whether you were going to turn up."

She smiled a little back at him, her mouth hardly moving but her eyes twinkling in a way that Ianto knew meant she was grinning inside.

"Well, I could hardly leave you to fend for yourself in here, you'd be swamped by about seventy title hungry second daughters before you got past the fourth dance. I'm surprised no one has asked you for this one."

"Me too." Ianto concurred, chuckling to himself as he accepted his Scotch of the reappearing barman and sipped it slowly. Although on any normal night he would have gone for a pint without a second thought, special occasions like the one they were at required sacrifices as far down as your drink of choice for the evening.

"Although I think my slightly abrupt departure from the floor after the first dance might have put people off a bit. Normally I stay and make small talk for the sake of propriety or whatever, but I just couldn't deal with that tonight. I don't know what it is, but I just don't want to put up with all the pretences and fake interested looks and polite yet so boring conversations any more."

Toshiko sighed, wrapping her arm around Ianto's side and squeezing him close as she said "I don't know how you ever _did_ deal with it. They're all so boring I want to stab myself in the eyes with hot pokers as a less painful alternative, and I'm the one who spends all day surrounded by computers. I would have gone mad a few years ago I think."

She laughed, stirring her drink and then taking a gulp, her eyes shining as she turned back to him. He knew that she was right, that sometimes trying to have a serious, normal conversation with his peers and their parents and everyone else gathered was completely impossible, but he had to do his best, had to make sure he pleased his parents. They lived for and loved their son, and he never wanted to disappoint them.

Hence the fact that he was marrying Lisa.

Speaking of which...

"Tosh, have you seen Lisa anywhere here tonight? She should be here, I'm sure she said she was coming, and that way I can dance with her and not the millions of other obnoxious bimbos that want a turn."

At that, Tosh couldn't help but snigger, nearly spraying drink out of her nose as she struggled to control herself when she had just taken a sip of her drink.

As the people at the bar around them looked over curiously, disapprovingly even, and shook their heads at the noise, probably muttering about 'children' and their 'antics nowadays', they both forced themselves to stop laughing and Tosh cleaned up the little bit of drink she had spilt, before setting her glass back down.

"I think-" she giggled, "I think she's going to be late, she should be here about..."

She trailed off as she looked at the bracelet she was wearing, which doubled as a watch, before saying "Well, about now actually."

Ianto looked at his own watch, which was showing nearly half past nine at night.

He sighed despondently as he realised just how much of the night was left to go before he could retire and leave, sink in to the calming abyss of his bed and just drift to sleep while his sore muscles relaxed and his blisters healed. It wouldn't be proper to leave before one am at least, and most people would expect him to stay until about two, when most people would be ready to start leaving. He would happily confess that if he could, he would have left right there and then and not looked back.

However, social decorum stopped him from doing so. That, and the fact that he actually enjoyed Lisa's company when she wasn't being pushed at him by their parents, and he would have been sad to miss her.

He turned back to Tosh after scanning the room for Lisa and asked "Do you think I'll be lucky enough to get out of here by midnight?"

She just chuckled and said "No chance Ianto. Your father and mother are here, and even if they weren't, no one would let you get away that early. I should think they probably lock the doors anyway, to keep everyone in."

He smiled along with her, and then turned to scan the crowd again, peering amongst the faces in the hope that one of them would be Lisa. At least then he could dance with someone who would make his parents happy. He could, of course, dance with Tosh, but she didn't much like dancing, claiming two left feet, and his parents somewhat disapproved of their friendship because she was 'new money' apparently.

Her parents, both famous mathematicians, had together created some sort of computer code that had sold millions of copies for whatever it did, and were now ridiculously wealthy. Tosh was even more brilliant than both of her parents combined, and could probably invent more codes in her spare time than they could together, but she chose to hide her light under a proverbial bushel and design computer interfaces instead.

Of course, he was pretty sure she was a professional hacker on her days off, but she didn't exactly scream it from the tops of tall buildings.

Therefore, Lisa was the preferred dance partner.

And he finally spotted her, gliding gracefully across the floor towards them. The only signs of the fact she was flustered, her flyaway hair and the clenched fists at her sides, were inevitably missed by most. However, he could tell by the set of her jaw that she wasn't really in the mood for pandering to the wishes of the ridiculous masses, so he stood up to greet her as she arrived at the bar, hugging her gently, and then ordered her the strongest drink he knew, a shot of something or other.

"Thanks Ianto."

She had downed it in one and slammed the glass back down onto the table, making the people gathered in little groups on either side of them look over curiously until she stared them down.

Sighing, Ianto said "Come on Lisa, let's get our on obligatory dance out of the way and then you can tell me all about what happened."

Rolling her eyes she grasped his hand and let him bump into her childishly, both of them giggling a little as they made their way to the floor.

However, they were interrupted just as they made it to the edge of the swirling mass of dancers by a large hand which clamped itself to Ianto's shoulder.

"Son! Glad to see you're keeping my daughter-in-law-to-be happy!"

Turning, Ianto came face to face with his father, the man who he loved but hated all at the same time. He was pretty sure his dad knew that he didn't really want to marry Lisa, but he wouldn't leave it alone. Lisa's face had gone cold now as well, hard and closed down in the fact of the reminder of the situation that they found themselves in.

"Excuse me." Ianto said stiffly, wrenching his shoulder out of his father's surprisingly painful grip.

Seeing Lisa nod grimly to him as she too walked away after finding some excuse, he walked swiftly towards the emergency exit, slipping through the doors and into the cool, dark alleyway beyond them. The only source of light bar the moon, obscured by clouds, was a dim streetlight at the complete other end of the alley, but Ianto didn't mind.

He just wanted to sink to the slightly dirty ground and rest his head in his hands as he tried to ignore the sounds of the ball still drifting through the small sliver of door he had left open so he could get back into the room.

He knew, really knew in the back of his mind, that he would have to marry Lisa and that they would both just have to spend the rest of their lives pretending to the world that they were a happily marries perfectly in love couple. But he couldn't help hoping that some day his family and hers would come around, stop trying to force them together just for the sake of propriety. Only, every time his father or hers said something like that it made him more and more sure that he would never know true love, true happiness, because they had forced him away from it.

He was about to steel himself to get up and go back inside when he noticed a change in the shadows around him through his fingers.

Ianto didn't even have time to move or scream before a bag had been forced over his head and his world went black.

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**A/N: Well, what did you think? I'd love to hear your feedback, because i may die from nerves if i don't! x**


	2. Wake Up

**Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter, it was lovely to know that people were enjoying what i've written so far. Hope you like the next chapter just as much.**

**Over and out xxx**

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The first thing he noticed as he came back round was the smell.

The overriding scent was a musty, mouldy odour that made him assume that he was locked in some sort of basement or shed; an unused, or underground room. However, faintly but still obviously detectable, the sharp, tangy, powerful small of chloroform hit his nostrils and he could feel his nose twitch and his eyes water a little as it did so.

His eyes, which, he realised, he hadn't even opened yet. They felt heavy, like lead shutters forced down over his eyes, and it took him a few moments, more than one try, before he could bring himself to force them open, force them to draw up like blinds and allow him to take in the fuzzy, blurred scene before him.

After the first few slow blinks cleared the moisture from his eyes, he could make out the wall opposite him, and the doorframe on the one adjacent to it, as far away from him as possible. All four walls seemed to be the same colour, a pale gray that made him realise after a few seconds that the room was really just a concrete shell. The other colours which he had thought at first might have been paint or some attempt at paper were in fact, probably mould, judging by the steady dripping he could hear, and the pool of water that was spreading out slowly towards him from the other end of the room.

The only thing in the room apart from him was a tattered brown sack, or small bag, which he guessed was what his kidnappers had used to subdue him. The way that the distinct wafts of chloroform that he could smell were coming from its direction also helped to solidify that theory.

However, the fact someone had used chloroform on him was a small issue in comparison to the fact that they had used it to _kidnap him!_

Even in his still a little woozy and possibly still drugged state, he had enough of his senses about him to realise that someone had forcibly kidnapped him and locked him up in what appeared to be a cellar of some kind. And even if he hadn't been quite scared and worried before, that realisation was probably about the time he should be starting to panic.

Except, after one sharp lurch forwards to try and get some sort of footing, he was aware that panicking would get him all of nowhere, since he was, predictably, handcuffed to the wall, or to something attached to it. He probably should have realised before that; the cold metal was biting into his skin, his wrists chilled from its steely tough, and he could tell when he moved them that he had moved around a little while he had been unconscious, because his wrists were chafed and sore, in a way that they would probably not have been had he stayed still.

Stretching his neck from side to side and around, he heard the satisfying click as it cracked, and then felt the ache of the muscles, the strain of keeping his head in that one awkward position relieved a little as he changed the side he was leaning to and glanced around the room once more.

He could clearly see the door now, and see that it was metal, and probably, he guessed, padlocked securely from the outside. There was rust around it's handle and the bolts holding it to the frame, and it looked as though there had been a poster or notice stuck to it at some point in time; there were curling, yellowing little bits of paper clinging to the metal, some still with the last vestiges of colour on them, forming a nearly rectangular shape.

But that was it as far as the room went.

There were no windows, no other door.

It was just the four grey, concrete walls, the metal door, and him.

After a couple more seconds, he decided that seeing as he was probably going to be there for the foreseeable future, he should probably manoeuvre somehow into a more comfortable position. He was splayed out on the floor sideways, his legs sprawled out in a very ungainly way half beneath him, and it was becoming more and more obvious that if he didn't move there was serious potential for major cramp in his legs.

So he pushed down with his handcuffed wrists, wincing in pain as he did so, and managed to exert enough pressure to haul himself into an upright sitting position, tucking his legs underneath him and crossing them neatly. He knew he probably looked like a preschooler, but it was a pretty comfortable position after his previous one, and it kept him upright and alert and awake, which was all he was hoping for.

Then a loud growl from the vicinity of his stomach reminded him that there was probably something else he should be hoping for.

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"You did _what_?"

Jack froze where he was, leant over the uneven metal table with his hands clenched tightly to the edge.

He was really, _really_ hoping that his uncle was joking.

"I kidnapped Ianto Jones."

There was a bang as Jack slumped back into his chair, his elbows slamming onto the tabletop as his head came to rest in his hands. He knew that his uncle was desperate, but he hadn't realised how desperate. Or that desperation made him stupid.

"You do realise that every cop in Cardiff will be out looking for him right now, don't you? They're not going to let up the search until they've found him. You couldn't have picked someone less fucking conspicuous could you? No, go for the biggest damn toff you could possibly pick, what were you thinking?"

He let the silence reign for a second before he continued "Actually, don't answer that - you _weren't_ fucking thinking! You're never going to get away with this!"

Slamming his hand down on the table he turned away, coat swishing behind him, and was about to slam the door open and storm out, too angry to stay in that small, confined room for much longer, when his uncle's voice snapped out from the other side of the table.

"Get back here! You are going to help me and you're going to play nice and not give me up to anyone, otherwise I can get you caught so fast that you won't see it coming. Remember what I did to that last person who squealed on me? I can make your life hell, don't even think about walking out on me. Or the police will find a lovely little parcel on their doorstep with all the proof they need that you were responsible for Alex Holt"

Jack froze but didn't turn around, his shoulders hunched and tense as he tried to regulate his breathing and not shout back at the man behind him. He had been around his uncle for far too long not to know that he could do exactly what he threatened, and would do with no remorse. He was a cold, calculating man who Jack was pretty sure thrived on making other people suffer.

Only he'd gone and got himself caught up in something he needed to buy his way out of, and that meant money. Much more money than he had to hand. So Jack had to hang around though the short temper while everything smoothed over.

"Fine Harold, you win. What do you want me to do, since I assume you aren't going to be looking after him yourself? Don't want to be recognised."

Jack could feel his uncle turn his cold grey eyes on him, the glare burning into his back, and his wasn't surprised when he replied in a voice about as icy as their depths.

"You assume correctly. You're going to be looking after him. I'm sure you'll find whatever you need in here somewhere, to feed him, see to his... ah, shall we say, needs, make sure he stays alive. I don't care about his comfort, don't pester me with ridiculous things like that. And if you ever need the handcuff key, come and ask me and I will let you have it. Otherwise, you won't get anywhere near it. He might grab it from you."

And with that Harold swept room the room in a flurry of movement, the ringing of his footsteps echoing off the walls, and Jack was left alone in the cold wondering what exactly he was getting himself into.

If it wasn't for the fact that he had to play by his uncle's rules, he would have made a beeline for the door long ago, because it was _Ianto Jones_ for god's sake, and he knew for fucking certain he didn't want to be mixed up in it.

Grimacing and striding towards the other door, that led to a long, dark corridor and then at the end, a kitchen, Jack started planning a mental list of all the things that he would need to keep Ianto alive and hopefully not kicking too hard for as long as it took Harold to get his money or the police to find Ianto.

He wasn't sure which one of those he thought would happen anyway.

He wasn't even sure which one he wanted to happen.

He didn't want Ianto to stay a prisoner for long, or to suffer just for his mad uncle's schemes, but on the other hand, the other option was that the police would come bursting through the door and arrest them all, and he wouldn't be out of prison in a very long time. And he was _not_ going to fucking prison, no way. He would rather carry on being Harold's dogsbody then go there.

So he dragged himself through the squalid corridors and into the kitchen, where he poured a glass of water and hastily made some sandwiches, cheese he thought, before grabbing the plate and glass and heading out the door, barely remembering to kick the fridge door shut as he went past it.

He just didn't want to be there at all, and the cold and damp that permeated the whole building weren't making him feel any better.

Then again, he was prepared to bet a lot of money that Ianto Jones felt worse.

When Jack finally got to the door that led into the room his uncle was keeping Ianto in, he had to set the glass and plate down on the floor at his feet with a sigh as he realised that he'd need both hands to undo the six or seven locks and bolts on the door.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled the keychain Harold had given him out of his pocket and started searching it for the right keys for the locks he was being faced with.

He knew that the one at the very top was the little silver one, and he got that open no problem. Next was a sliding bolt, which was simple and easy to undo, and was the one he suspected had come with the actual door, or was the oldest of them all, at any rate. The third one down gave him more problems, but after realising that he wanted one of the longer brass keys, he was able to get it open pretty quickly.

The next two were also pretty simple once he'd figured out which key went in which lock, but when he was met with the seventh one, he couldn't find any way to undo it.

There was no key that fit into the lock, and he couldn't see a catch on the casing, no little button that would release the door.

"Shit! Fuck."

He was so screwed.

Unless. Unless he picked it.

Not the most elegant solution, and it would take one of the locks out the equation, but he was willing to risk that. Because he had a feeling he wouldn't be getting in any time soon otherwise.

Sighing, he patted himself down, hoping he'd have something he could use, and to his astonishment found a paperclip in one of the pockets on his coat, amongst the receipts and debris. Bending it out of shape quickly, he wiggled it into the keyhole and started his work.

Inside the room, Ianto opened his eyes hurriedly and then winced at the onslaught of light from the single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling from a fraying wire. Because of the lack of windows it was needed all the time, but that didn't stop him from wishing that it was turned off every once in a while.

However, it wasn't the light that had made him open his eyes.

He had been aware of the banging and scratching and clicking, and was pretty certain that someone was on the other side of the door, probably trying to undo all the bolts. He wasn't stupid, he knew the sound of a deadbolt when he heard one.

But it was the long pause after what he was pretty certain was the sixth lock clicking that had made him suspicious in the first place. He had thought that the door would open straight away, and when it hadn't he had assumed that whoever was on the other side had been called away, or perhaps decided that they didn't want to come in after all.

But then the next noise had started up, a strange scratching and clicking and cracking, and he had no idea what was happening.

And then there was one louder click and silence.

The scrape of something against the floor, and then Ianto saw the handle turn, and curled back into the corner as if it would protect him. He wanted to be defiant, to spit in the faces of the people who had attacked and kidnapped him, but when it came down to it he had no idea what he was about to face.

Which was probably why he reacted by silently widening his eyes as the door opened, and a guy not much older then himself came through the thick metal.

A guy not much older that himself with a plate in one hand and a glass in the other, and what looked like an unbent paperclip stuck in his mouth.

_Well,_ he thought absently, while the rest of his mind just froze, _that explains the noise. He was picking the lock._

Jack stopped dead in the doorway, plate and glass in hand and the paperclip wedged into his mouth.

Fuck, but his uncle had never mentioned how hot Ianto Jones was.

Sure, all the eligible society girls were after him, but Jack had kinda always assumed that they were after the money and the position more than the man himself. But damn, if this was what he looked like, then Jack wished that he'd got a shot at landing the guy.

But seeing Jones' eyes bug out at the sight of him unfroze his muscles enough that he managed to walk over and place the plate and glass down on the floor in front on him, only realising too late, when he was eye level with the insanely hot guy that was handcuffed to the wall, that he had a slight problem.

"I can't eat that on my own you know."

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**A/N: Well, they've met, so what happens from here? It'd be great to hear from you about what you think, and thanks for reading as always! x**


	3. Likely As Angels In Hell

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews for Chapter Two, and well, let's see how their interaction progresses shall we? I hope you continue to enjoy,**

**Over and out xxx**

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Of course, Jack should have realised that.

Here was a guy locked up in front of him with his hands handcuffed behind his back, which Jack knew he didn't have the key for. How on earth did he actually think Ianto was going to eat?

But then, as he was trying to think of a solution to their obvious problem, you know, beside the fact that his goddamn uncle had gone and kidnapped fucking Ianto Jones, he noticed the change in Ianto's face.

It was very subtle, if he hadn't been at eye level with him already he wouldn't have noticed it, but it was as if all emotion had been erased off the other man's face. It went from angry and slightly sarcastic to blank before Jack even had time to look at him properly, and when he got a good look into Ianto's eyes, all he could see staring back at him were the shuttered outsides to what had been there the moment before. Like he had just closed himself off and slid a well constructed mask on in his place.

But god, it made him feel even shittier about what he was doing. Because he knew that expression. It was the one he wore every time he was forced to do something by Harold, every time he knew that he had no choice.

It was the face of someone who was resigned to their fate, who was choosing to accept whatever was coming their way and just deal with it. It meant that he really, _really_ probably wanted to punch Jack in the face and scream until his eardrums caved in, but he was taking a deep breath and trying not to either cry or scream or let it show.

And at the sight of that Jack knew.

He wasn't going to get anywhere with Ianto Jones unless he could somehow magically make him trust him. Which was as likely as angels in hell to ever happen.

Sighing, he straightened back up and took a step away from Ianto, making sure to keep eye contact with the mask of non-expression that he had created.

"Okay. Well there are two ways we can do this. One, I can feed this to you. Two, you can refuse and starve to death. Unfortunately," he paused to make sure Ianto realised he wasn't being sarcastic, "That's about it."

Silence.

"I guessed that was how it was going to be. I'm going to try option one first then."

And he grabbed the sandwich off the plate and scooted closer to Ianto again, hoping that it would work out okay. From the way the other man angled his body towards Jack, kneeling more comfortably and stretching out towards him, he guessed it would. But that could just have been his imagination.

"You're not allergic to dairy or anything are you?" He asked just before his hand reached Ianto's mouth, panicking as he remembered what was on the sandwich.

For a second he thought Ianto was just going to ignore him, until he saw a flicker behind his eyes, and saw Ianto shake his head ever so slightly, so slight that if he'd blinked he would have missed it. Okay, well it was then or never he supposed.

It took a few tries to get it right, but then they got into a rhythm and eventually Ianto had finished the whole sandwich. Jack thought it was insanely weird to be feeding another person, especially one who definitely didn't have hand capability. It was slightly like feeding a child, and slightly like feeding a lover, neither of which were anywhere near the situation, although thinking that nearly made Jack laugh, and he had to control himself before he burst out laughing and made Ianto hate him even more than he already did.

But when he had finished that, he leant back down, settling on his feet, and just glared at Jack with a ferocious intensity that scared him at first. In fact, it scared him and made him ashamed in equal amounts. But his uncle was the one in charge, and there was nothing that he could do to make the situation any better, save for trying to be nicer to Ianto, to make his time more comfortable. Except he had no idea how he was going to.

The only thing he could think of was the fact that he needed to do something about Ianto's handcuffs. Because he could already see the rubbed raw red marks forming on his wrists from them, and he knew from experience that if they were that bad after one day, they there was going to be serious problems after about the week mark.

Not that his uncle had helped _him_. He had just waited until Jack broke and agreed to work for Harold.

"Excuse me?"

He was so shocked that Ianto had actually spoken that he jumped about a mile in the air, and span his head around to face him so fast it nearly gave him whiplash.

But the other man was still looking at him with barely concealed contempt as he said "Are you going to let me have any water?"

It took Jack a moment to comprehend what the hell he was talking about. When he realised he immediately nodded, his eyes widening into their most persuasive and puppy dog like as he lifted the glass and pressed it gently against Ianto's lips, tipping it up when he saw them moving, saw his adam's apple bob as he swallowed.

Ianto gave a weird shake of his head when he was finished and pulled away a little, though not enough to let the water spill, and Jack shifted the glass back and out of his way as he continued thinking about how he could get the keys to the handcuffs of his uncle.

"Thank you."

It was said stiffly, as though it had been wrenched out of Ianto by sheer adherence to manners, like he had had them drummed into him until there was no way he could possibly not use them, even when he was talking to someone Jack supposed he thought was one of his kidnappers.

It almost made him smile, until he realised what situation they were in.

Then he nodded one last time at the strong, defiant and gorgeous man who was detained in front of him, and quickly stood, grabbing the plate and glass on hi way up. He stayed where he was for about a second, then turned sharply and strode to the door, opening it after juggling the crockery he was holding and then kicking it shut with his foot.

"I'll be back with your tea." He called loudly through the door, and then set about relocking the bolts and locks.

It took him some time to get all seven done up, and even then he was trying to find a key for the eighth for a long time until he realised that he had picked it.

Then turned his back to the door and slumped down it, his knees bent up in front of him and his head resting on them, sat on his hands as he leaned forwards.

He had no way pf knowing that he was mirroring the position of the prisoner he had just left behind.

* * *

Lisa was pacing agitatedly up and down the floor of the reception in the central Cardiff police station, and she knew it was probably annoying the other three or so people who where in there, but she needed something to do with herself while she waited.

She was worried, really worried.

At first when Ianto had gone off on his own, running out the back door, the fire exit she thought, and into what had turned out to be some little alleyway outside, she hadn't been too concerned. Yeah, she was annoyed at his father and the whole stupid world that they lived in, and pissed off that Ianto was hurting because of it, but she had been pretty sure that he'd be back quite soon after, getting a other drink and the leading her to the dancefloor for the obligatory dance that they both knew had to happen at things like the ball.

But as she'd sat and talked Tosh through her day from hell, she had slowly started to realise that Ianto should have probably been back by then, and that she hadn't seen him return at all.

Cutting a long story short, she had run outside only to find that he wasn't there, and then she and Tosh had searched the whole building in vain trying to find out where on earth he had gone, to no avail. It was like he had just disappeared off the face of the planet, with no contact at all.

The next most obvious thing was that he had turned his phone off and then gone somewhere else to get completely hammered, so drunk that he couldn't even remember his own name, to forget the emptiness that she knew was niggling at both of them as they got ready to enter into a marriage just to please their parents.

But that just didn't seem like his style at all, and when he hadn't returned that morning or contacted her at all, his phone still turned off, she had started to get really worried.

So the police station was the best option after looking everywhere in Cardiff she thought he might be.

Wringing her hands and looking up at the ceiling, sighing, Lisa continued to pace, until an exasperated voice spoke up from her left.

"Lisa, could you stop that now. Sit down maybe? I know you're upset, but making the entirety of the _police_ waiting room want to kill you probably isn't the best idea."

Tosh patted the seat next to her in the universal sigh for sit down, and, with a sigh, Lisa took the seat and settled for biting her fingernails while they both watched the minutes tick by on the clock opposite them on the wall. Then -

"Lisa Hallet?"

They were both on their feet before the receptionist had even finished Lisa's name, and were striding across the hallway to the police officer who had stepped out into the hallway and seemed to be looking around for them.

He was medium height, with dirty blonde, curling hair, and the nervous smile on his face as he saw them walking towards him made Lisa roll her eyes internally and sigh, because she could just tell that he was probably new. She needed the best Cardiff police had to offer, and this was what they ended up with? Just her luck she supposed.

His smile widened as they finally reached him, and after holding out his hand to Lisa, who shook it, and then Tosh, said "I'm PC Davidson, but I'm sure we'd all get along better if you called me Andy. Now, I'll take you down to one of our interview rooms and you two lovely ladies can tell me all about what it is you came here to report."

Watching Lisa's eyes twitch again in a way she knew meant that the other woman was just itching to roll them, Tosh stepped forwards and said "That's great, thank you."

Letting him lead them down a gray and dark blue corridor and wondering whether police stations ever looked anything less than menacing and sterile on the inside, she let her mind wander to consider the possibilities that they were probably going to have to run through with the PC on the subject of Ianto.

They wouldn't want to file a missing person's report, because Ianto hadn't been missing for more than three days. However, even when she had told Lisa that, the other woman was determined that there would be something they could do. Or something she could _make_ them do.

And with the way she was looking at the poor unsuspecting policeman, Tosh was half convinced that Lisa would be able to get anyone to do anything.

But the more rational part of her was announcing loud and clear that their visit to the police station was probably going to be a waste of time.

After all, she knew enough about the police force from the sporadic hacking of their records that she had done to know that in cases like the one they were reporting, more often than not the alleged victim had run away of their own volition, or just had a bad night out and was recovering somewhere, in a skip or someone's doorway if they weren't lucky. So the follow up rate for them was pretty low anyway, and even the one's that were developed, they had had to wait for the mandatory period of three days before anything had been done.

Of course, she herself was pretty sure that there was something wrong, that Ianto hadn't gone off somewhere just because he could, but telling the police that wouldn't do a blind bit of difference really.

So they had a few other options really: Do it themselves or hire a private detective.

Personally, she was leaning towards the private detective option.

But before she could start thinking about who she thought would be the best for the job, they were led into an interview room and she and Lisa took their seats at the table, while PC Davidson - Andy - went to find someone for them.

"Trust us to get the incompetent ones!" Lisa huffed, settling further into her uncomfortable chair.

Looking over, Tosh just smiled thinly and said "I don't think it will matter. I did tell you, this won't do any good at all, not right now."

But Lisa just rolled her eyes, properly that time, and answered "You say so, but I bet I can get something out of them."

Then she folded her arms in a display of sullen determination that was laced with a deep anxiety that Tosh could only see after having known Lisa for years.

When the police woman arrived, all big smiles and bouncy hair and broad Welsh accent, the meeting went pretty much as Tosh had predicted.

Lisa explained the situation accompanied by copious amounts of hand gestures and heated banging's of her fist on the table, and then the police woman (Gwen) explained that until a few more days had passed there was nothing she could do.

And then Tosh sighed and smiled apologetically at Gwen as Lisa ranted about the declining standards of the police force and how they should be doing something about Ianto, before apologising for her after she stormed out the room.

Gwen was polite and accommodating, and promised in spite of Lisa's anger that if the situation hadn't changed after the next few days that she would happily file a missing persons report and start a search.

And so when she met Lisa back in the reception area, with a face like thunder, she took a moment to think about it before saying "Private investigator?"

* * *

**A/N: My goodness, trying to get them interacting is harder than i thought, those boys just can't seem to understand how much they need each other.**

**I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this latest chapter :) x**


	4. Mental Aftermath

**Once again, thank you for the wonderful reviews, and i hope you continue to read and enjoy this. I seem to be sticking to a semi-regular posting schedule, but i should never take more thank a week break between chapters hopefully.**

**Also, i forgot to do this at the beginning, and realise i should have, but please consider this a work of fiction and completely disclaimed.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

After the humiliation, the unintentional degradation of having to be fed by someone else, Ianto's mind was going crazy, running itself round in circles about all the things he had been trying to block out before, and new things that had originated since the visit of his mysterious captor.

He was slowly starting to come to terms with what his family must be feeling, his mother and father and Rhiannon, and what had happened to Lisa and Tosh at the ball. Had they realised what had happened yet, were they worried? What were they doing about it? Had they reported it to the police, or had they just thought that perhaps he was blowing off steam and that they could yell at him when he returned later on?

He was pretty sure Lisa and Tosh would have done something, noticed something was wrong, because they knew him the best of everyone, knew that there was no way he would just run off and leave everyone, get out and go wild just because he felt like it, because he could.

He could see Lisa in his head, storming around, accusing people of things, demanding to see security tapes and speak to security personnel and generally making a nuisance out of herself.

Tosh, on the other hand, would have already looked at all the CCTV tapes she could get her hands, or rather, her computer on, because he could bet it would be child's play for her to hack into the servers that hosted them. She could have the names and addresses of the security guards and bar staff and waitstaff - in fact, anyone who was there on the night who might have seen something or done something - and would, he was willing to bet, be making use of them as he sat there.

It was then that he realised that even if they had gone to the police, nothing would have been done. There was a rule, a law, or police policy about not filing a missing person report until the person had been missing three, or maybe four he thought, days. Logically a good idea so that they didn't go chasing up false alarms, but not helpful at all in his case.

However, he was willing to bet that even if Tosh and Lisa had gone to the police, it would be a damn sight more than his parents would have done.

They were probably sitting reservedly over their tea and finger sandwiches being eloquently scathing about him, making all sorts of derogatory comments on the assumption that he left to go on a wild night out and would be staggering home hungover any time soon.

He had never wished to be staggering home hungover more than at that moment.

But as there was nothing he could do to affect the outside world any more, he sat up straighter against the wall, stretching his neck again, and started to ponder his situation, and how he could get out of it.

He was also quite... intrigued about the strange man who had brought him his food earlier.

As his captor had been entering the room, Ianto had counted the sound of six locks slowly opening, unlocking, one after another, and had resigned himself to the fact that there was no way he was getting out of the room unless he had outside help, because he could not get through all those locks from the inside.

Even with the seventh lock out of action, because the other man had picked it to enter the room, trying to get out the door was a no-go.

And he was pretty sure they were underground anyway, not to mention that the walls were made of concrete, so busting through one of them also seemed like a bad idea for an escape plan.

But the simplest solution seemed to be that he would actually just have to wait until the kidnappers had got what they wanted. And hope and pray that they would return him in one peace when they finally got it.

He said kidnapper_s_ because he was pretty sure that there was definitely more than one. Possibly a whole group, but it seemed to him that there were probably two, maybe three: the mastermind, and his accomplice, who didn't know quite what he was doing.

Ianto hoped to hell that he could exploit that.

Because the man who had come into the room to feed him obviously hadn't planned the operation. If he had, there would have been plans in place for him to eat, and he wouldn't have had to pick the seventh lock for a start.

Unfortunately, even after he had decided what the weak link he could exploit to get himself out of the squalid, dirty little room was, he had no way of actually exploiting it, or even knowing when the man would come back and what he would do. He might be back later that day, or he might wait until the next one, Ianto just didn't know.

He didn't know very much actually, and what he did know didn't help him.

As he had thought before, he knew that he was underground, probably, because of the lack of windows and any discernable outside noise.

He knew that he had been kidnapped by two or more people, and that one of them was young and inexperienced.

And he also knew that this man was handsome, and a smart dresser.

His clothes had been extremely worn, his shoes scuffed and his shirt ever so slightly yellowed, but they had been a good cut and style, like something Ianto himself might have worn while he was around the house. Almost as if he had been well off once, had been able to dress himself smartly and suavely and had gladly done so, and then he had somehow lost the money, and ended up wearing the same clothes over and over, ruining them and scuffing them, but still wanting to look his best, still knowing what style was and how to pull it off.

Which intrigued Ianto, because at first he had assumed that he was poor and hardened, that his family was probably not new to crime, but the way he had dressed and held himself was making Ianto reconsider that assessment.

There was also the other thing, the one that Ianto had been trying to push to the back of his mind, to ignore as it shoved its way forwards, gnawing its way to the centre of his brain like a mouse unable to stay still.

The fact that even as he was turning away, acting cold and aloof, to try and show him that he couldn't be broken, he hadn't been able to stop himself from noticing how good looking the guy was. The way he had spiked his hair a little but missed just a bit, that was curling into his eyes. The way he had a tiny bit of stubble, like he had forgotten to shave that morning.

The way his eyes had darted around in panic, and he had been able to tell that he was slightly unsure about everything, but Ianto couldn't help noticing as he registered that that they were some of the most beautiful he had ever seen.

And he didn't want to be thinking about that.

Not at all.

In fact, he was pretty sure that anyone else in his position, handcuffed to a wall and being kept locked in a relatively cold underground with no immediate idea of when he might be released, would _not_ be noticing the good looks of his or her captors. They would have had better things to think about.

Like, how on earth they could get away, escape, or what their families and friends were thinking, or at least trying to get comfortable and ease the pain he could feel building in his wrists.

But no.

All he could think about, now that he had acknowledged it, was the sweep of his captors cheekbones and the sharp curve of his eyebrows.

"What am I doing?" He asked himself out loud, scaring himself a little as his words echoed strangely off the cold concrete walls.

Of course, he had no idea.

Sighing to himself, he shifter from his sitting position into a kneeling one, his numb arse resting on his heels as he tried to jostle his wrists as little as possible, hoping that they would be better after he had got some rest, even though he didn't think that they would. They would just continue to rub and swell and bleed, but he could hope.

After one last glance over at the door he nodded to himself once, and then let his shoulders sag, leaning his head down until he was bending towards the floor, curved downwards so that his head nearly rested on his knees.

* * *

Standing outside the door to Ianto's room, Jack was suddenly nervous about going in.

He was pretty sure that the guy didn't really want to see him, as he had made pretty clear the last time he had been in there. Then again, he supposed that if he had been kidnapped and locked up, he wouldn't have wanted to become too friendly with his captors either. In fact, he would have probably been much more proactively aggressive towards them, shouting and screaming and kicking, lashing out.

He was very impressed with the way Ianto was handling everything.

The only problem was the fact that he didn't think Ianto should _have_ to be handling everything. He should have been curled up in his own comfortable bed about then, probably reading some Austen or Bronte or Dickens, or whatever the other posh people read. Or maybe he would have been out at another ball, whirling pretty girls in even prettier dresses around the dance floor with a smile on his face.

He shouldn't have been locked up in the basement of Jack's uncle's Cardiff house, chained to the wall in the cellar in the clothes he'd been wearing two days previously probably (even though Jack could appreciate just how good he looked in them). He definitely shouldn't have eaten only once in that time, and only what Jack could scrounge up to give him.

And most importantly, he shouldn't have been handcuffed to the wall so tightly, so harshly, that he couldn't even lie down, couldn't go to sleep properly, couldn't even eat on his own.

Jack had sorted out one of those problems by sneaking out of the house while his uncle had been busy with other work, and gone out to buy food, grabbing his big army coat, the one he loved, from the back of the door and feeling slightly less horrified at what he was involved in because it soothed him somehow.

Now he only had the other two to deal with.

It had also been easy to slip into his uncle's office on the pretence of helping him out and tidying it up before he had a meeting with someone who was apparently important, and sneak the key to the handcuffs off his keyring.

He had had a copy made and then left the first one outside his uncle's office on the floor as if he'd just dropped it there, so that he wouldn't suspect anything.

It was just the third thing that he was stuck on.

He wanted to help Ianto out, find some way for him to escape, get him out of there, back to his family. And not even because Jack was attracted to him, something he wished vehemently wasn't true, but because he seemed like a great guy, and he shouldn't have been put through what he was.

Only he couldn't because his uncle was blackmailing him, forcing him to stay, to keep Ianto locked up and not let his escape, and Jack knew that Harold could keep his promises, that he would find him if he escaped, would do much more than just kill him quickly. They were family, but his uncle had become desperate of late. Jack knew that he needed the money for something, just not what.

So he was effectively trapped.

But that didn't mean he couldn't go in and make sure Ianto was as comfortable as Jack could make him without alerting Harold to the fact that he was helping him.

With that in mind, he headed towards the kitchen, pulling open the fridge door and staring into it, hoping that there would be something that Ianto could eat, something that was nutritious and could keep his energy levels up.

Noticing a carton of soup at the back, he pulled it out and decanted it into a bowl, deciding to just give Ianto the whole carton, then pushed it gently into the microwave and set the timer, leaving it to warm up as he surveyed the rest of the kitchen.

It wasn't a mess as such, just cluttered, with different pots and pans stacked next to the sink, and another pile of clean ones waiting to be put away. He was familiar with every cupboard and all the appliances from time that he'd spent in his uncle's house, and it made him feel strange, knowing that he felt so comfortable up there when there was a starving prisoner locked up in the cellar probably listening to him walk around, his footsteps loud on the tiled floor.

But then the timer on the microwave beeped, and then beeped again, drawing him out of his musings and making him dash across the room and gingerly lift the hot bowl out of it, desperately searching for a space on the crowded surfaces to put it down before it burnt him.

He found one and then shoved a plate underneath it to carry it, grabbing some energy bars or cereal bars or something from a packet on the sideboard before he left the room.

He could feel the big gray army coat he had taken to wearing swish against his legs as he walked, and it was calming to him, a repetitive motion that soothed his nerves. Because he wanted to be all confident and assertive, to storm into the room and release Ianto with a flourish, setting him free and bringing him back to the real world.

The only problem was, even as confident as he was normally, he had to figure out a way around Harold's blackmail yet, and even then, the house was really far out in the back of beyond, so there was no way he could get Ianto out without a plan. Which was what he was going to have to devise after he'd set to work making him more comfortable.

Stopping outside the door, Jack fumbled for his keys, managing to get them out without having to put the food down like last time, and started to unlock all of the locks, one by one, forgetting which keys were which and nearly dropping them all on the floor before he managed to get them all unlocked.

He took a deep breath, hoping that this encounter would go at least slightly better than the first one, and pushed open the door with his elbow, the soup and energy bars clasped in his hands.

Only to stop short just inside as the image of Ianto sat curled up nearly into a ball, his arms stretching behind him because his wrists were still handcuffed to the wall, made the bottom drop out of his stomach.

* * *

**A/N: Fingers crossed you enjoyed, any thoughts on how they boy are going to get on now? Let me know :) x**


	5. Private Detective

**Thank you once again to everyone who reviewed, especially DarkwingDuckie for the logistical slip up i have now rectified, and i hope you enjoy once again.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Tosh was pretty sure she was making the right decision.

She had left Lisa back at the Jones family house, trying to get the family to calm down and stop freaking out, and slipped out the servants' entrance so that the press didn't see her leaving out the front door and bombard her with questions, or worse, follow her to her next destination.

Lisa had wanted to come with her to the private detective she had scouted out, but she knew just how hot-headed Lisa was, especially when it came to Ianto, and it seemed to Tosh that it would probably be counter productive bringing her.

Which meant that she was sitting in her beat up old mini, fiddling with a rough patch on the deep red upholstery and wondering why it wasn't the rich dark green of the outside of the car.

Really, thinking about anything that would distract her from the fact that her best friend was missing and they still had no idea where he had gone. Or what had happened to him. Or even any leads at all on who might have come into contact with him in the alleyway she was pretty sure he had gone into to cool down and get his anger out.

Checking once again in her rearview mirror to make sure that she definitely hadn't been followed, she pulled off the main road and down a side street that her remodelled sat-nav was telling her would take her to the Detective Agency.

Right at the end of the street there was a smaller lane leading off to the right, and once she had headed down it, it brought her out into a relatively open, grassy space, with trees lining the rest of what appeared to be the driveway.

When she pulled up outside the building it turned out to be an old, medium sized but beautifully designed house with a newer annexe added onto the side. It had ivy climbing the walls and an apple blossom tree near the front door, and it was about as far from what she had been picturing a detective Agency to look like as she thought it was possible to get.

In fact, the only reason that she could tell that it was where she was looking for was the discrete sign to the left of the door that said 'John Smith and Associated: Private Detective Agency'.

Checking her watch quickly, she could see that she was pretty much spot on time, even after a bit of a snarl up in traffic on the way, so she closed her eyes and collected herself, then swung the door open and grabbed her bag, making sure she had her laptop case as well. She made her way to the door and swung it open, walking through to find herself in a pleasantly lit room, where a few chairs were lined up against one wall, comfy ones that made her just want to sink into them, facing the wide desk that took up most of the opposite side of the room; She presumed that it was one that had been used before the Agency started, because it screamed home office circa. 1900 rather than reception chic like most other places she had been in her business life.

But her quick scan of the area was interrupted when a female voice attracted her attention from behind the desk she had previously thought to be unoccupied.

"Excuse me, can I help you with anything?"

Jumping a little, Tosh focused her attention on the woman behind the desk and saw that her name card read Donna Jackson.

She had flaming red hair, an infections smile and an accent that was definitely not local to Cardiff. If pushed she would have hazarded a guess at London. Definitely southern.

Tosh liked her instantly.

"Erm, I have an appointment scheduled with Mr Smith at..." She paused and looked down at her watch, "About five minutes. Half past eleven."

The redhead, Donna, Smiled warmly at her and then flipped a few pages further on in the extremely large ledger that she had sat on the desk in front of her, which Tosh assumed was where she had the agency's records of appointments and such like. Why they weren't using computers Tosh didn't know, but just as she was about to ask Donna looked back up from the book and grinned at her again, saying "Of course. And if I could just check the name?"

"Toshiko Sato."

There was a rustle as she flipped another page, and then Donna said "Right, well I know you're just a little early, but I'm pretty sure John will be able to see you straight away. Just head through those doors," She indicated a set of double doors on her left, which looked as if they were carved out of some sort of mahogany, something dark and expensive, "and you'll be able to find your way. I'll let him know you're on your way in."

Nodding and smiling gratefully back, Tosh strode purposefully towards the doors, admiring the craftsmanship as she reached them and pushed them gently open, a tiny gasp escaping from her lips as she took in the scene in front of her.

The room she was in was quite large, may in fact have been the size of her entire apartment, but it was cluttered up with all manner of things. It looked like a cross between a mad scientist's lab and somebody's living room.

There were couches dotted around throughout the space, with mismatched cushions and sometimes chairs accompanying them, and she could see at least one rug on the floor, maybe two, but it was contrasted by the immense amount of what looked like scientific equipment, four or five different computers and at least another half dozen machines that she was unsure about.

And in the middle of all the organized chaos, there was a huge desk quite similar to the one which Donna had been sitting at outside, with stacks of papers haphazardly covering it's surface, along with three coffee mugs and a plate of crumbs that looked to have once been home to some kind of biscuits.

The last thing of all that Tosh noticed was the man in the man sat behind it with his back to her, because his pinstripe suit and light brown hair had blended seamlessly into the huge chalkboard that was mounted on the wall behind him.

Or at least, she didn't really notice him until he span around on his chair and grinned at her, his white teeth gleaming in the lamplight, and bobbed his head a bit as he beckoned her over, his spiky hair bouncing and swaying as he did so.

When she had sat down and was comfortable, he held out his hand towards her over the desk and said cheerfully "I'm John Smith, of the Private Detective Agency, what can I do for you today then Miss Sato?"

She suddenly had to refrain from giggling like a schoolgirl as she took his hand, barely noticing the firm grip, and sat down in the comfy armchair that was positioned just to the left side of his desk. There was something about him that just made her want to grin, to smile and bounce and behave like an idiot and not care about it. But of course, she was here for Ianto. And she was going to get a result, whether she had to draw blood to do it or not.

"Well, Mr Smith, to put it bluntly, one of my friends has recently gone missing in a rather suspicious set of circumstances, and I was hoping you could help me find him."

"John please."

She smiled, even more at ease and extremely glad he was the agency she had picked.

"Okay then John, do you think you can help?" She crossed and uncrossed her legs, then crossed them yet again and jiggled her foot nervously as she waited for his answer.

She didn't have to wait long, he leaned forwards like an excited child and answered her almost immediately.

"Well I'll have to get some extra details off you to be sure, but I'm almost certain that we can get this case solved in no time at all. But first of all, where exactly did this happen?"

And she was off, launching into the story of Ianto's disappearance with gusto, not realising quite how agitated and animated she was getting until she knocked over the steaming mug that was perched on the end of his desk.

It clattered to the floor with a crash, spilling hot coffee all over the wooden floorboards and probably staining them, and she shot out of her chair and away from the scalding splashed, frantically cursing her clumsiness as she bent down and retrieved the mug, before trying to mop up the spilled coffee, to no avail.

John had come rushing around from his side of the desk, and he shoed her away from the spill quickly, grabbing a tissue from the box on his desk and mopping it up effortlessly.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so clumsy, honestly, I don't even know how it happened, I-"

"It's fine, don't worry about it! It wasn't very good coffee anyway, I'd made it myself, and the mug wasn't anything special either, so no harm done."

John guided her back into her seat and then smoothly slid back around the desk and into his own, before continuing "Normally my second assistant makes the coffee, she's like a goddess at it, but she's away on her honeymoon at the moment, and I just haven't got the hang of the coffee maker yet! Although I don't begrudge Amy and Rory their week away, goodness knows they spend more then enough time chasing around after me on wild goose chases and mad escapades!"

Tosh laughs along with him and then settles into a goodnatured smile as he continues to recount why he didn't ever normally make coffee for himself. He only stopped when, mid sentence, he looked up at her properly and froze, his mouth stopping wide open for a second.

"Dammit I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just rambling on about everything and you've got a case you need me to help you with! Well, from what you've already described to me, I'd say we're looking at a kidnap as the most likely scenario. Although there hasn't been a note yet, or so you know, so we can't rule out other possibilities, but I still think that's the most likely."

She nodded along, having come to the same conclusion herself, and let him continue.

"So first things first, I think we'd better start by getting a look at the place where Ianto actually went missing, see if there are any clues we can find at the scene that indicate anything. The police won't have been there yet, if I'm right in assuming that they won't open it as a missing person case for another twenty hours or so, so we should be able to get everything possible to lead us on the right track."

Tosh nods and smiles a little again, saying "Yeah, that's why I'm here really. The police wouldn't - couldn't - open it as a case and we, that is, myself and another of Ianto's friends, Lisa, felt that this was probably the best avenue to go down if we wanted the fastest possible results."

"Of course. I think most people think the same really, and because of the ridiculous caseload of the police these days, in cases like these it's probably true that we get the job done faster. Or at least, professionals like myself and my team. Not to repudiate the police at all, they do a wonderful job, but the system is just such that some things can't even be done justice really."

He looks honestly upset about the fact that the police have too much on their plate, and Tosh finds herself warming to him even more that she already had.

Grinning at him, she replied "Well, I couldn't agree more. And if you wanted to get a head start, I could probably get us into the building where the ball was being held pretty soon. I guess a name like mine carries some weight in society, especially in places that cater to functions like the one we were attending. I hate the limelight really, the attention and the fawning, but sometimes I suppose it's helpful at least."

John smiles a little tightly at that, looking sympathetic, and then rubs his hands together and says "Okay, well then we should probably get going. Just let me call my first assistant and we can head off, I don't have any other meetings today."

* * *

It turns out John's first assistant was a bubbly young woman called Rose, who had blonde hair and a contagious smile, and even with Tosh not really being an extremely talkative person, she was getting along well enough just telling her about other cases that they'd worked on, and the time when she swore they'd been investigating pod people, because there was no way anyone who worked in an office could ever be that friendly all the time.

She could also tell that Rose was much more than an assistant. She seemed to keep the whole operation ticking over, like John would forget his head if it wasn't screwed on. Tosh was also pretty sure she caught them both throwing surreptitious longing glances at each other when the thought no one was looking.

But it wasn't really her place to speculate, so she just smiled to herself and went though the tedious business of getting them all into the room where the ball had been held, and making sure she got the right emergency fire exit that Ianto had exited through, and then checking on the computer that was at the side of the room (because whoever left it on had been practically begging for her to use it) to make sure that it wasn't alarmed and wouldn't get half the fire service down there if they opened it.

Once she had determined that no, there was no alarm that was going to start shrieking if they pushed the metal bar and opened the door, the three of them trooped outside and wedged the door slightly ajar behind them as they stood shivering ever so slightly in the dark, musty alleyway.

"Okay, well this is a pretty good start to things, because I can already tell that however Ianto left this alleyway, there was only one direction he was going in when he got out of it." John said, grinning in his manic way as he started to pace up and down.

Tosh was about to ask what he meant, when she realised that the alley came out adjacent to the back of the hotel, leading onto a backstreet, and that it was a complete dead end, meaning that there was no way past the hotel on the left, and the only direction Ianto could have gone in was right, along the street they were facing towards. Behind them was a tall bright wall, and there was pretty much no way at all he had gone over there, even with someone else in the picture.

Then Rose was shouting for John to come and see something further down the alley, and from the way his face lit up when he saw what she was pointing to, you would have thought Christmas and his birthday had rolled into one and arrived early.

She watched, bemused as he picked something small and brown, a scrap of fabric, up off the ground and sniffed it a little before recoiling, before he said "Well, I think we can be pretty certain that Ianto didn't leave this alleyway under his own steam."

When she looked confused he elaborated - "Chloroform. Looks like he was kidnapped."

* * *

**A/N: Well, i presume you recognised those characters, but i couldn't resist :) Feedback as always is lovely! x**


	6. Second Impressions

**Well, i wasn't sure if i was going to get a chapter out this week on time, and in the end i didn't get enough written on what i'm working on, so my back up chapters are once again depleted, but once exams are over i'll be right back on schedule. **

**Here's hoping you like it, and thanks to those who reviewed,**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Jack wasn't sure how long he stayed there in the doorway, frozen, but he was willing to bet it was only about thirty seconds even when it felt like forever to him.

It was like he couldn't breathe, like a physical punch in the gut that he really hadn't been expecting. Oh, he knew how bad Ianto had looked to him the first time around, and he had been prepared to have it hurt him again as he tried to find a way to make things better, but he hadn't realised it would hit him this badly.

It wasn't even just that he was attracted to him, even though god knew he was, not that it helped, but it was the way he looked entirely, the way he hadn't even moved. It was his posture, so defeatist, as if he had just accepted his fate and hadn't got the energy to fight anymore.

He was about to move, to hurry over and make sure that he was still conscious, still alive, still _something_, when Ianto lifted his head and looked straight at him.

The look on his face absolutely _slayed_ him.

He froze up even more for half a second and then he was sprinting over to Ianto and putting the food on the ground as carefully as he could, he didn't even care if the soup went everywhere, and hunting frantically in his pockets for the key to the handcuffs.

* * *

Ianto was pretty sure he'd heard the door and the locks to be fair, but he hadn't bothered acknowledging them at first. He had lost all feeling in his hands and probably his feet too, he thought, because of the cold, and he just couldn't bring himself to care about whoever was coming through the door.

It wasn't until they door had, he was certain, swung open, but there were no footsteps, nothing indicating that there was someone coming in at all, that he started to actually think about the door opening properly. And it still took him a few seconds to realise that whoever had unlocked and opened the door was still standing in the doorway, presumably just looking in at him.

So he gathered all his energy, made up his mind, and raised his head, fixing his eyes on the doorway.

The light hurt his eyes at first, bright light that made it seem like yeah, it was probably daytime outside, and then he could focus more on the shadow that was rapidly turning into the same man he had talked to before standing in the doorway.

Only, he hardly had time to recognise him before he was moving, practically springing across the cellar floor towards him and dropping to his knees in front of him, haphazardly shoving a bowl of something, maybe a plate as well, onto the floor as he searched his pockets frantically.

Ianto was much too tired and delirious to wonder why he was noticing things like the guy's hair, the way that it fell across his eyes and its wonderful rich deep brown, and then his eyes as they flicked up towards him once or twice. They were glinting in the light in such a distracting way that Ianto didn't even realise that the guy was reaching behind him for his wrists before he felt hands on him and had to fight the urge to jerk away.

There was some sort of scraping noise, he couldn't figure out what, and his wrists were rubbing badly on the cold metal of the cuffs, but then he could just about make out a click, and the metal was no longer in such close contact with his wrists, it was loosening, falling away, until he couldn't feel it at all.

And it still took him a minute to realise what had happened, to slowly wriggle his hands, move his wrists, contort his arms as he stretched them, pulled them out from behind his back, flexed his fingers in front of him as if they were the only things in the world.

"You? But I... I don't understand?"

His voice was a croak, rusty and cracking in places, but he knew the other man had heard him, could see the crease in between his eyebrows as he finally met Ianto's eyes for longer than two seconds.

"I couldn't... I couldn't just leave you like this." Jack choked out, trying not to look at the red, swollen, cracked and bleeding rings around Ianto's wrists that were making him want to throw up.

Ianto didn't know what to say to that.

He had been pretty sure they guy he was facing had been an accomplice in his kidnapping, had collaborated in some way, and then he was suddenly taking his handcuffs off. It made no sense at all, and the only reaction he could think of was to just sink back against the wall and sit cross-legged, staring at the man in front of him as though that would make him explain everything.

When that didn't work, he managed to croak out "But you kidnapped me?"

He hadn't meant for it to sound like a question, but it undeniably did, and the other man answered him as if it had been.

"No, no, I didn't, I... My uncle kidnapped you. But he's blackmailed me into helping him keep you here, keep you locked up, and I just couldn't! I couldn't watch you suffer like that, you don't deserve it! So I wanted to try and help you, I guess. I want to try and make sure you can escape, but I need to be able to plan it properly first. If I let you go now you'd never get out of the building, or I would, I promise. The best I can do for now is to take off your handcuffs and make sure you don't die from starvation."

Jack tried to look into Ianto's eyes as he spoke, make sure the other man knew he was telling the truth, that he was really trying to help, but he wasn't sure that it was working. He could still sense the apprehension in Ianto's demeanour.

But as he finished talking, he suddenly remembered the food, and grabbed the dishes from the floor, nearly spilling soup all over himself, in his haste to hand them to Ianto and let him eat properly.

"See, I told you I'd bring food!" He said, slightly higher pitched than normal, desperate to get Ianto to believe him. He knew his plan wouldn't work if he didn't.

Ianto just looked at the plate and dish warily before slowly extending his hands and reaching out to grasp them. Jack had nearly let go of them both, satisfied that Ianto was holding them up, when the other man's wrists gave way and he had to do some seriously fucking impressive juggling to keep everything upright.

The handcuff cut and bruises were making it very hard for him to hold things, and Jack was just hoping that trying to feed Ianto wouldn't be as awkward as last time.

In the end he ended up sat cross legged on the floor facing Ianto in a mirror of his pose.

But from there he really wasn't sure what to do. He hated the whole situation, hated what he was being forced to do, hated the conditions Ianto was being kept in, but what he hated the most was the feeling of being out of his depth, of not knowing quite what to do next.

He normally knew exactly what to do, was the leader, the one who took charge. And then his uncle had come along and changed all that, and his world had been thrown into disarray, and somehow, by some cruel twist of fate, he had ended up sat on the floor of his uncle's dingy cellar facing Ianto Jones without a clue in the world what he was supposed to do to make things better, to make things _right_.

He started by trying to make amends.

"Look, I'm just, I don't even know, _sorry_ that we got off on the wrong foot last time. I didn't exactly invite your trust or anything seeing as you thought I'd kidnapped you, but I wanted to make sure you knew that wasn't _me_! And that I want to help, I really do. But I guess the best way to help right now is to help you eat so you don't starve to death."

He shrugged apologetically and looked into Ianto's eyes, silently begging him to at least be civil about everything.

Ianto had expected him to be arrogant and flashy, aloof maybe, but he definitely hadn't expected him to sound so sincere, so honest, and he felt himself thaw out under the other man's earnest gaze.

"That would be wonderful thanks." He said, shifting so that his back was propped straight up against the wall, "you wouldn't believe how hungry I was getting."

He hadn't intended it to be scathing, but when the other man winced he realised that that was what it had been interpreted as. Smiling a little, he tentatively tried to convey that he was being serious. Because he had realised that his comfort and health and quite possibly his life and means of escape rested squarely on the man's shoulders, and he didn't want to alienate him.

He had a gut feeling that he was telling the truth, that he was trustworthy, added to, he suspected, by the fact he had been released from the handcuffs, and he was going to run with that and just hope and pray he was right.

The starting point of which, he thought, was probably asking the man's name, so he didn't have to keep referring to him as 'the man'. Especially as he was pretty sure the man knew his name.

"No honestly, I'm glad you're here, um... What is your name by the way?" He stuttered slightly, trying and failing not to let his trepidation show.

Jack smiled at Ianto, hoping that his reaction meant that he was going to trust him, work with him to plan some way to help himself, to facilitate an escape.

"I'm Jack. Jack Harkness. Although I used to get called Captain when I was younger." He said, and it broke the ice properly, both himself and Ianto laughing at his ridiculous comment.

"Well Jack Harkness, if you mean what you say then I'm so glad that you're here to help me. And if you don't mind, _Captain_, can we get started on the soup?" Ianto asked softly, getting more and more tired by the minute, and hoping that it would be easier to get to sleep when he wasn't handcuffed tightly to a wall.

Jack jumped, startled, and reached around behind himself to grab the soup and bread that he had forgotten all about in his impassioned plea to Ianto.

"Here. Do you think you can use the spoon okay, with your wrists, or do you need me to help?"

Ianto just grimaced slightly and said "I bloody well hope I can use the spoon myself, I don't really want to have to be fed now I can actually use my hands. I might as well try. I don't think my wrists are _that_ bad."

And reaching over he stuck a hand out and grasped the cold metal from Jack, wincing a little as the other man let go but otherwise okay.

"I think I'll be okay with you holding the bowl. This is bearable, and my wrists only hurt excruciatingly badly if they rub on anything, which they won't do."

Slowly but surely, with Jack holding the bowl out in front of him, Ianto eat the entire bowl of soup, slurping it eagerly and making sounds that made Jack want to squirm. He just settled for edging forwards every so often under the guise of helping him eat, just drawn towards Ianto for some inexplicable reason. Now he felt that he would be trusted more by the Welshman, he just wanted to stay in the room and cuddle him, and never let go.

Jack was no stranger to thinking other guys were cute, even to doing things with other men in bars, pubs and clubs, he could appreciate the male form very well thank you very much, and he was pretty much in prime position, even with the way that Ianto was looking at that moment, to ascertain that he was ridiculously good looking.

He also had an accent to die for.

And Jack knew he shouldn't be thinking about it, but he just wanted to curl up around the Welshman and never let anyone hurt him ever again. He wanted to soothe his wounds and then kiss him softly and let him go to sleep.

Only problem was, he knew damn well that Ianto was engaged to Lisa Hallet, and there was no way he was going to go there.

So shaking the thought out of his head, he shifted just that little bit further forwards until their knees were actually touching, and helped Ianto eat the last of the soup, before handing him the glass of water and praying that he could manage to hold it on his own.

Grasping at the water, Ianto discovered that he could just about manage to hold the glass if he held it tightly with both hands, so his grimaced and tipped the glass towards his cracked lips, closing his eyes and sighing as the cool water hit them. It was so soothing that he nearly drank the whole thing without realising it.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to drink it all, I-"

"Don't worry, I can get you more." Jack said, grinning slightly as he watched the relief flood into Ianto's eyes.

Which he didn't find insanely beautiful. Nope, not even one little bit.

Not at all.

Mentally slapping himself in the face and telling himself to snap out of it, he resigned himself to the fact he would just have to look and not touch for once and be a friend for the man in front of him.

However, there was one small issue he had realised that he needed to address, and that he really wished he didn't have to. But he did.

"After that water you're going to need to... Well, you..." He trailed off, not able to get the words out and feeling a light flush rise in his face.

Ianto smiled tiredly and reached out to rest a hand on Jack's arm, aborting his next attempt at getting the sentence out before it head really begun.

"Thank god you mentioned it, because it was starting to worry me and honestly Jack, I hadn't really thought of that many options. How were you planning to - well, orchestrate this?"

Hesitating, Jack didn't look Ianto in the eyes as he said "There's small utility room along the corridor with a low down trough sink, a throwback from the Victorian era. It's the only room even vaguely suitable that Harold won't know about. Sorry."

* * *

While Ianto was in the other room Jack had sneaked upstairs and found a change of clothes, his, and some blankets that Ianto could use to keep warm at night. He knew there were other things the man needed really, but he just wasn't sure he had any way of getting them.

As they sneaked back into the room, blankets and clothes draped over his arm, Jack led Ianto over to the side of the room the handcuffs were on and had nearly sat him down when it seemed like Ianto's legs were about to give way.

Jack, preoccupied with putting down the bundle he was holding, only just caught him in time and lowered him onto the floor as Ianto said "Shit sorry. They aren't used to that, I haven't stood up in quite a while."

Ignoring Jack's wince, Ianto slumped back against the wall, relieved, and then looked up at the man in front of him, still not quite, even after the bathroom break, daring to believe what he had been told, even after how helpful he had been so far.

"So you honestly want to help me? Get me out of here?" He asked, puzzled.

The response was immediate; "Of course! I never wanted to be involved in the first place!"

Ianto accepted this in silence for a few seconds before "Are you going to lock me back up to the wall again when you leave?"

And Jack could see the fear in his eyes.

"No! If you want me to help you, then I'm going to leave you uncuffed, but you'll need to make sure you look like you are if my uncle ever comes to check on you. He probably won't, but I'll knock before I come in so you know it's him if he just undoes the locks okay? And then I can work on some way to get you out of here."

"Some way? You don't have a plan yet?"

Jack looked embarrassed as he glanced to the door and back before sheepishly saying "Well... not a _concrete_ one."

* * *

**A/N: Hopefully that dealt with a few issues and we got some more quality interaction time with the boys. I'd love to hear what you think :) x**


	7. Ransom

**My god, so sorry i haven't posted in nearly two weeks, so much exam work and so little time. I also apologise in advance for the large amount of spelling/grammar/punctuation errors that i'm sure permeate this chapter, i just haven't got the time needed to trawl it for mistakes... When i do i'll go back and get it sorted, i promise.**

**Anyway, enough of my ramblings, enjoy.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

When Tosh finally said goodbye to John and Rose, and headed back towards the Jones family house, she was feeling a lot more positive.

She had finally got something done that wasn't just going around in circles and getting her nowhere, and it was such a relief, a weight off her chest. Knowing that Ianto was being helped by someone, that there was someone trying to get him back, doing everything that they could, made her feel better.

She could still feel the physical ache of Ianto being gone but it was a little better now that she had seen and talked to John, even if she had pretty much concrete proof now that Ianto had been kidnapped.

She was just trying really hard not to think about that.

Pushing her glasses a tiny bit further up her nose, she pulled up outside the Jones house, a huge three story redbrick townhouse that was embellished on the outside like they were expecting the queen around for tea. Although considering the people that had probably lived in the house before them, she didn't think it was that unlikely.

Glad that it wasn't raining for once, something that didn't happen often, she walked slowly up the steps, not knowing what she was going to find behind the door.

Her hand had snuck out and rung the doorbell before she had even really think about it, and as she pulled her hand away the solid oak door was already being pulled open by the butler, who took one look at her and said "You should probably come in Miss Sato. I think the family will be pleased to see you. And Miss Hallet."

Nodding, she quickly said her thanks and stepped past him into the marble foyer and adjoining hallway, hesitating for a second as to where to go before the butler spoke from behind her.

"They're in the drawing room."

"Thank you!" She said, rushing off down the corridor to where she now knew that family was gathered.

If they were in the drawing room rather than the lounge it definitely couldn't be good news, Tosh knew from many an experience when she and Ianto had been younger that the dining room was where all 'family meetings' were held, and where anyone in trouble was reprimanded. Not that Ianto had ever been, but his younger sister had been called in a few times that Tosh could remember.

When she got to the door she could hear raised voiced emanating from behind it, and warily leaned forwards, not wanting to interrupt Ianto's father shouting at anyone.

However, when she could finally hear him better it seemed as though he was discussing Ianto's disappearance, and the volume of his voice was just a side effect of his anxiety. So, pushing open the door, she walked in, hoping that the family wouldn't resent her being there. After all, she was Ianto's closest friend, followed by Lisa, and she had information for them that she was petty sure they would be more than happy to get.

The scene she was met with when she made it through the door entirely wasn't what she had been expecting and was exactly what she had all at once.

Ianto's father Bryn was pacing the floor, still ranting and raving and waving his arms about, having probably not seen her come in. But instead of being stood by the bookcase, nodding slowly and pursing her lips, his mother was collapsed on the chaise longue in the corner, her head in her hands and sobbing softly, as if she couldn't do anything else, couldn't stop.

However, she only got a quick glance at his parents before she was being tackled into the nearest chair and hugged ferociously by someone that she could only assume was Ianto's sister Rhiannon, who blocked off her view completely. Breaking her arms free from the tight hold that Rhiannon had on her, Tosh wound them around her neck a little haltingly and hugged her back lightly, not sure whether it was the right thing to do or not.

It seemed that it was, because Rhiannon was pulling back and smiling at her through her tears, some still making fresh tracks down her face like the first beads of dew on a flower petal.

"Tosh! Tosh I'm so glad you're here I don't know what we'd d-d-d-do without you. You need to help us please, you'll know what to do!"

Rhiannon was grasping at her hands, pulling her towards the centre of the room and leading her to one of the empty chairs around the table, his round, puppy dog eyes brimming with tears as she sank into one on the opposite side of the grand mahogany dining table.

"Know what to do about _what_ Rhiannon, what's happened?" Tosh asked gently, grasping the other woman's hand.

No one spoke for a second and it seemed like even the furniture was drawing in a quick breath, like it knew what was coming, the clam before the storm.

Then Bryn strode across the room from the corner where he had been hovering, finally quiet, and pulled a piece of paper from the opposite end of the table, before splaying it out in from of her in all it's glory.

The message was obvious as soon as she saw what the paper contained, the different cut outs from newspapers and magazines splashed across the page like a cliché straight out of a Hollywood film.

'We have your precious son, and you won't get him back until you give us £50,000'

It was by no means the most original ransom not in the world, nor was it overly threatening, but just the fact that it was actually there, in her hand, made her feel a little weak at the knees.

She staggered back a little, collapsing into the nearest chair and letting the note flutter back to the table top, her hand pressed to her mouth. She just had no words for it, no words at all. Her heart was racing and she could feel her palms start to sweat, and she had to take a few deep breaths before she felt okay to look up and try to continue some sort of discussion.

Some how seeing the note made it that bit more real.

It was as if, even before, when she had been sure something had happened to him, and then when Detective Smith had told her that he was certain someone had kidnapped Ianto, she had somehow been denying it in the back of her mind. She had been clinging to the last shred of false hope, that there was no conclusive proof that Ianto had been taken by someone.

The note was an end to that.

Because it couldn't be a hoax, they hadn't publicised his disappearance, so the only people who could possibly know were close family and friends, the police and John Smith. Which meant that whoever had sent them the note really had kidnapped Ianto, and was ransoming him, demanding money before he could be released.

Tosh felt like she was in the script of a Hollywood film, the ones where the main guy valiantly escapes and goes on to serve justice to his captor and gets the girl as well.

But it was real, it was really happening and Ianto was really gone, and she was still struggling to comprehend it.

"When did you get this?"

Bryn looked over at her from the table, where he had been intently regarding the note, and just blinked at her for a second before answering "This morning. At about ten."

Considering that, she nodded, and then asked the next question that she assumed John Smith would have asked had he been there.

"Was it stamped? Postmarked? Or even addressed at all?"

It was his mother Meghan who answered that time, breaking off from her sobs to say, haltingly "It was stamped and addressed, but - hic - not postmarked. So the horrible creature who has done this must have found some way to get to - hic - our house! The very though of it makes my skin crawl."

And then she burst into fresh sobs, her handkerchief forgotten as she buried her head in her hands and rubbed at her eyes, smudging her heavily applied make-up.

Tosh just tried to consider the implications of that revelation for a second, wondering just how the perpetrator had managed to get the ransom not into the house, without posting it. Surely someone must have seen something?

That gave her another thought, like a flash of inspiration, which made her sit forwards in her seat to talk to Bryn again.

"But surely you have CCTV or some other way of monitoring the things that go on here, maybe you have him on film!"

It shocked Tosh even more when the answer came from her right side, Rhiannon speaking for the first time since she had seen the note.

"We have cameras around that area, but we're not sure whether they will have caught anything. They're all angled towards hotspots, but he might have slipped in under the radar. Daddy has called the police, they should be here soon, and they're going to see if they can find anything." She said, her smile appearing tentatively before wobbling and disappearing again.

Tosh's first thought was that she could do about ten times better than whatever idiot the police were sending over, but she didn't say that out loud, instead just telling them that "Well, at least now the police are taking this seriously. Yesterday they were just telling us there was nothing they could do because he hadn't been missing for enough time. I guess they can't deny his disappearance with a ransom note."

"Yes, we were told the same thing when we tried to contact them. They were as helpful as they could be, but said that there was nothing they could do. I just hope that they will spare no expense now that they have proof that there is a case to be solved." Ianto's mother said quietly, smiling thinly at her from the armchair she was perched in and them leaning back into in completely, as if she could just merge with the fabric if she stayed there long enough.

Honestly, Tosh felt like she had the right idea.

If she could just melt into the fabric, into the background, and not have to be chasing criminals all over the city, if she could sink into a blissful oblivion for a few minutes, maybe hours, when she didn't have to think about the fact that her best friend had been kidnapped, it would be perfect.

But she knew that she couldn't, knew that she had to get the work done, do her best to keep the family together, because from the looks of it she they were about to fall apart themselves if there was no one there to organise things.

Tosh could see Bryn's calm, controlled veneer cracking and slipping as every second ticked by and as the conversation stuttered to a halt and they sank into silence, all four of them sinking into their hands and trying to think themselves out of their predicament, she knew it was only a matter of time before he snapped.

She wouldn't put it past him to shout at the police, to rant and rave, nor would she expect anything less than hysterical wailing from his mother. Neither of them would be any use, and although Rhiannon was probably more likely to be coherent when the police finally showed up, she wouldn't be able to help them very much, just wasn't sharp enough to give the police all the pertinent information that they needed.

So Tosh knew that when the time came it would fall to her to be the one who dealt with the inevitable police visit and all that entailed.

Which was why she was staying silently in the Jones' drawing room, instead of going home, drawing herself a nice hot relaxing bath and then crawling under the covers and dreaming her way into the next day.

As she sat there, resting her face loosely on her palms and staring listlessly into the distance, the opposite wall blurring as her eyes unfocused, she started to think of Ianto, of how he never would have realised just how much his disappearance had affected his family.

Tosh knew that he would be devastated that he wasn't there for Rhiannon, knew that he doted on her as only an older brother could, and she adored him just as much as he adored her. Her reaction was understandable, and Tosh thought she was being extremely brave in the circumstances. She herself was only holding everything together because she knew that if she fell apart there was no hope for the rest of the family, she needed to stay strong.

It was the reactions of Ianto's mother and father that had surprised and, in the latter case, shocked Tosh.

Ianto had always been convinced that his mother loved Rhiannon more and that she had only lukewarm feelings for him, and although he tried his best to be the perfect son, he was always trying to live up to the love his mother seemed to have for his baby sister.

However, the reaction Tosh was seeing belied what she had always been told, and it was quite interesting to see what was happening.

However, the bigger shock was the reaction of Bryn, because even Tosh had seen the ice cold man inside the warm, smiling façade, seen the demands and the threats and the pressure that was put on her friend daily to try and conform, to measure up to society's standards and expectations, to measure up to his own expectations, which were even more ridiculously embellished.

Yet here he was, pacing and frantic, trying to find out what had happened to his son, being indignant on his behalf, and generally stirring up a proverbial storm to try and recover him once they had found out what had happened.

But in the back of her mind, Tosh was still aware of the previous reaction of the family when they weren't sure that Ianto had been kidnapped.

Only Rhiannon had even bothered to be worried, with Ianto's parents shrugging their shoulders in blatant disregard for his safety, and it angered Tosh a little that their concern was possibly more for their family status that for Ianto's welfare and health, even if they were concerned to some extent.

"Excuse me?"

Tosh's musings were disrupted when the butler popped his head around the door, looking at once relieved and nervous in equal measure.

"What is it Smith?"

The butler stepped fully into the room and hesitated before announcing "The police are here to see you."

* * *

**A/N: As always, hope you enjoyed and please tell me what you thought! x**


	8. Interview

**Again, sorry for the delay, and the slew of horrible mistakes that are bound to pepper this chapter like machine gun fire, but i am happy to say exams are finally over. And so, on with the show.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Tosh had realised that the police were going to be coming to the Jones household before they arrived, but she hadn't really been prepared for the sheer amount of prying and poking and questioning and interviews that their investigation seemed to involve.

When the Detective Inspector had been shown into the room, Tosh had been expecting Gwen, the woman she had spoken to at the station when she and Lisa had gone down to report Ianto's disappearance, but it was another woman that strode in through the wooden doors looking very much like she meant business.

However, Tosh was just glad that the force was finally becoming a much more female friendly arena to work in where the upper echelons were concerned, so she personally welcomed another woman on the case.

She introduced herself as DI Kathy Swanson, and her strong welsh accent and warm smile endeared her to Tosh even though she hadn't spoken more than five or six words in total. It was just something about her presence that endeared her to people, Tosh supposed, which would make her a good police officer and hopefully good at solving their case.

However, it had transpired that there were things that needed to be done before the police could go out and hunt for Ianto's kidnapped.

"Okay, now I know that you've all been thought a great deal, and I don't want to make you any more upset than you already are, but I was very much hoping that each of you could come with me, maybe into another room," She looked uncertainly at Smith, who, after a nod from Ianto's father, hurried out the room to prepare another one, "And talk about what you know to do with this case. The last time you saw Ianto, whether he had any enemies, whether you know anyone who might be desperate enough to do anything like that."

She had barely finished speaking when Ianto's father angrily burst out "Just what are you insinuating? That we purposefully associate with those who are desperate and desolate?"

Tosh's revised opinion of his was getting more and more sullied by the second, but thankfully the Detective stepped in before she had to, saying "I can assure you Mr Jones, that I meant nothing of the sort. Just that you may have had friends in the past who are now not as well off, shall I say. Who would maybe be bitter, and see this as a means of taunting you and getting what they want at the same time."

That shut Ianto's father up, and for that Tosh was glad. However, when he got called in to speak to Kathy Swanson first, it was all she could do not to fall face down on the table as she waited for her turn. She just wanted to get everything over with, and she knew that every minute she sat around and waited to be interviewed, the less evidence and chances of recovering Ianto quickly there was to be found.

It seemed to take hours for Detective Swanson to interview Ianto's father, and by the time he came back into the room, looking haggard and drawn, she had been chasing numerous different conspiracy theories around in her head for at least the previous ten minutes.

At first she had suspected that maybe the kidnappers were a gang of career criminals, maybe people who did this for a living and had no interest in Ianto personally, just wanted to make the money.

But then, why would they have known exactly where he would be at that time on that night, and been down that particular back alley?

No, it made much more sense to think that it was someone who was a lot less experienced in the world of crime, and who had made the decision on perhaps the spur of the moment. Although there must have been some planning, because there was chloroform involved, and Tosh was very sceptical that anyone carried around chloroform with them for no reason whatsoever.

There was another thought niggling in the back of her mind that said maybe it was one of the many giggling sycophants who were always trying to dance with him, trying to force him to get married to her, maybe even actually fall in love with her, but even to Tosh's sleep deprived and confused mind, that sounded a little ridiculous and far fetched.

So she just shut off her mind as much as she could, and waited for the detective to ask the next person into the small annexe room for their interview.

She was expecting it to be Ianto's mother who Detective Swanson would call on next, because that would be the logical progression through the family, so she wasn't expecting it at all when the Detective opened her moth and out came "Toshiko Sato, if I could speak to you next please? You can leave all your things in here, it will just be a talk at this stage."

For a few seconds she still couldn't quite believe it, and then she shook herself more awake and sat properly up in her chair, before levering herself slowly out of it and grasping her bag quickly as she walked towards the Detective and the door, not wanting to leave it no matter what she had been told.

Detective Swanson smiled warmly at her as they drew level, and it did somehow soothe Tosh even though she hadn't been expecting anything to be able to calm her nerves, before leading the way into the annexe room on the drawing room in the Jones' house, which she didn't know as well as the rest of the building maybe simply because it was hardly even used.

In fact, Tosh would have hazarded a guess that without the staff cleaning it what should have been every week at least, it would be covered with about an inch of dust and wouldn't have been used in the last four years at least. This was what happened to people who had more money than sense and not enough time; They ended up with whole rooms they didn't even bloody use.

She knew that her family had money, yes, but they saved it and donated it, something Ianto had always wanted to do with his own, and didn't fritter it on frivolous things for no reason. She spent her money wisely, because her parents had brought her up that way.

Their frivolity was one of her main criticisms of Ianto's family, but the fact that it gave them the extra room to have interviews in was quite helpful.

"Okay Toshiko, I just want to get a few pointers about the last time you saw Ianto, anything he might have said, people you think we should talk to, that sort of thing. So get comfortable, and have you got any questions before we start?" Detective Swanson asked, sitting herself and folding her hands demurely in her lap, totally at odds with her businesslike face.

There was just one thing, "I would feel better if you could call me Tosh. No one but my parents use Toshiko, and it just makes me feel a little odd to hear you say it."

"Of course, that's fine Tosh." Swanson smiled again, warmth in her eyes, and Tosh relaxed.

"Okay then I guess the next step is to start with the questions! First of all, can you tell me the place and time, as accurately as possible, that you last saw Mr. Ianto Jones?"

Well, at least they were starting with the easy ones.

"It was the eleventh of April, the night he went missing, or so we suppose, and we were at the Marriot in Cardiff city centre for the annual Eisermann Ball. He socialised and danced until about ten forty or so, then came and sat at the bar with myself, and a few minutes after that Lisa Hallet, who I'm sure you'll be interviewing as well at some point. At what I'd guess was about eleven he left the two of us at the bar and went out of the fire exit to the right of the bar, on the back wall of the ballroom, letting it shut behind him, which was the last I saw of him that night, and subsequently since."

She took a deep breath after imparting all that information on the Detective, and then watched as the other woman scribbled in her notebook for a second longer before looking back up at her and smiling a little.

"Thanks. That correlates with all the other information we've gathered so far, so everything's fine there. As well as that, would you happed to know exactly what Ianto was wearing when he went missing, as we'll need to put out a statement and make an announcement to the press, and having an accurate description of what he would have been wearing will be an excellent start for that."

Tosh thinks to herself for a second, wondering how much exactly she knew of his outfit. She was certain on some things and much less confident on others, so she was just going to have to hope she could give an accurate enough picture really.

She ran over her ideas in her head one more time before starting "He was definitely wearing a black suit, the trousers and jacket, and a deep maroon shirt that I know he was particularly fond of. I'm also certain that he had a waistcoat, and I'm ninety percent convinced that it was black, matching the suit jacket and contrasting the maroon. As for the tie, I'm not sure whether it was long of a bow tie, but the rest of that I'm almost convinced of."

Detective Swanson nodded, and for a second the only sound in the little room was the scratching of her pen as it flew quickly across the sheets of the notepad she had in her hand.

Then, after a minute or so, she looked up again, the smile gone from hr face and the worry back in her eyes, as she said "Okay, this is where we get to the part that you may be a little reluctant to answer, but I need you to know that withholding evidence is not only a crime but will just make it much harder to find Ianto."

She was about to continue, but Tosh cut across her, pretty sure she knew where Swanson was going.

"Don't worry, I know I have to tell you everything, and believe me, I want to find Ianto probably more than you do. So just ask me your questions, and I suppose I'll do my best to answer them Detective."

"Call me Kathy, please. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other, it will just be easier."

Tosh nodded and smiled, which that time did elicit a reciprocation in response, before the Detective - Kathy - moved on to her next set of questions.

"Just as a preliminary measure, I wonder if you know anyone who you would have classed Ianto's enemy, as ridiculous as that term sounds?"

I know exactly what you mean Kathy, don't worry, but no, no, there was no one. He was, as cliché as it sounds, universally loved by everyone that knew him. He was the perfect gentleman, at least to those whom he didn't know very well."

Kathy Swanson frowned, breaking off from her writing to cock her head to the side a little and look at Tosh oddly, which made her skin prickle in an odd way which she didn't quite like, although it wasn't the detective who was causing it.

"When you say those he didn't know very well, you're referring to whom exactly?" She queried, leaning forwards so that her elbow was resting on the table.

"Well," Tosh started contemplating how exactly she should phrase it, "He tended to put on a façade when we went to those things, those stupid balls, because he hated them really. He went to them for his father's sake, because he didn't want to encourage the huge row he knew would happen otherwise, but the people there are incredibly selfish for the most part, incredibly fake. He just put on a mask like theirs to fit in, so that they never got to know the real him."

Frowning again, Kathy Swanson gave up with her note pad and set it spine upwards on the table to keep her place, before leaning in even further to try and decipher Ianto's private life.

"But I assume you're saying that you knew the 'real him' so to speak. So you would know if he was particularly annoyed with someone, who was getting at him, maybe even if there was anyone who you think knew him and knew how much they could take his family for?"

Tosh nodded, "Theoretically yes, but I can't actually concur on any of those things, because I can't recall Ianto having enemies, avoiding or annoying anyone apart from the most persistent girls, so I don't know how much help I can be of to you."

"The persistent girls? What do you mean?"

Kathy watched as Tosh sighed, fidgeting with her hands on her lap for a second before looking up sheepishly, as if she didn't quite know what to say.

"Well, at these things, these balls, Ianto was seen as quite the catch, so to speak. Pretty much every available girl who was the right age and who had enough money to be considered was vying for his attention every time he went out, and he hated it. He was pretty much all set to marry Lisa Hallet anyway, even though neither of them wanted it, because it was what their parents wanted. So most girls got the brush off and realised they didn't have a shot, and gave up. It was only the most persistent few who really wouldn't take no for an answer and who I know really annoyed him."

Tosh knew that it probably wouldn't help the investigation at all, because she doubted that any of the girls that had been chasing Ianto for the last year or so had enough brain cells by half to even think about doing something so radical and dangerous, but she knew she might as well just answer the detective's questions.

"So these girls, was there any one on particular who you think could have been this desperate? Any of them seem to be getting more and more anxious, maybe paranoid, of late?"

"Not that I can think of. They might have been dumb and desperate, but I don't think any of them were this desperate. And if they had been the ones that had kidnapped Ianto, they would be more likely to force him to marry them or try and convince him to love them than send his family a ransom note. This smacks of a more organised or thought through plan, at least in so far as the purpose of the kidnapping, not to encroach on your job of course." Tosh finished, hoping she hadn't offended Kathy with her assumptions.

The scribbling had stopped, and Kathy Swanson was looking down at her notepad curiously, then flicking her eyes up to Tosh, and then repeating the cycle, as if she wanted to say something and couldn't quite get the words out, her thoughts together.

Then, as Tosh was about to say something, the door burst open, and a young police officer stuck he head around the door and said "DI Swanson, we've had a call from headquarters. I think you're going to want to come, they've found some new evidence in the alleyway behind the Marriot hotel."

And with that Kathy was a flurry of movement, packing up her notepad and Dictaphone and shoving a whole sheaf of papers into her bag, before apologising profusely to Tosh and promising she would be in contact with her again.

She was halfway out the door and completely lost in her head before Tosh realised that she new exactly what the police would have found in the alleyway behind the Marriot hotel.

Because they had already found it.

* * *

**A/N: And once again i hope you enjoyed and would love to hear what you thought :) x**


	9. Old Friends

**So, i hope everyone had a better week than me, since i spent the whole time working :/ But this chapter cheered me up, and hopefully solves a few of the questions people were bound to have. Hope you like it!**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Pacing around the ground floor rooms in his uncle's house, Jack knew he needed to get started on a way to make sure that Ianto could get out of the house safely and that Harold wouldn't be able to hold the blackmail against him.

There was only one person Jack trusted enough to help him out without turning him in to his uncle, but getting hold of him would be pretty hard, unless he got lucky. And even before all of that, he was going to have to come up with a legitimate excuse to be out the house without Harold's express permission, because there were CCTV cameras all around the outside of the building and the edge of the property.

The cameras themselves were one of the reasons they were going to need help getting Ianto out the building, so he wasn't taking any chances.

Harold Saxon was as mad as they come, and he had been getting worse recently, under pressure from people he was working, or what he liked to call working, under, and Jack didn't put it past him to have all sorts of crazy mechanisms in place to make sure that he knew what was going on. However, he had god damn kidnapped someone on a whim without any thought as to how they were going to look after him, so Jack supposed he had a legitimate excuse for being out if Harold asked.

Which was just was well, because just as he got to the hallway Harold entered from the other end, grinning manically at him and asking "And just where are you going Jack?"

He panicked for just a second before answering "I need to get supplies for Iant - the prisoner. You can't ransom someone who's dead."

Just as Jack had hoped, his comment appealed to Harold's sick humour and his uncle laughed and clapped him on the back, and even drew some notes from his pocket to press into his palm as he said "Well go on then, go and make sure I have a prisoner to be paid for."

And just like that Jack was out the door and walking down the path, the cogs whirring in his mind as he tried to figure out how he was going to contact the person he needed to.

* * *

After a few quick calls to most of his friends and acquaintances from the days before he had become Harold's lackey, he had narrowed his search down to a few places, one of which was his old local, about a mile down the road from Harold's secluded house, past the nearest hamlet and the shop he was supposedly going to.

A glance around at the front showed no signs of life, but he knew that inside the Y Fuwch Goch* it would be a hive of festivities, with welsh music and loud voices ringing through the many wooden panelled passageways and smoke filled rooms.

Jack strode in, exuding confidence he wasn't really feeling as his thoughts strayed back to Ianto, cold and alone, in the cellar of his uncle's house. He wanted to get him out, get him help, do anything, but he needed the help of someone on the outside. If only he could find him.

"Alright Jack?"

He nodded to the familiar barman as other faces he recognised and some he didn't turned in his direction, many calling out to greet him and wish him well, others asking how he'd been, why he hadn't been in lately.

"Well I have my reasons boys and they aren't too pleasant, but I'm only here to see one face tonight I'm afraid. There's someone whose help I need." He paused, letting it sink in, then continued, "Have any of you seen-"

"Jack Harkness, where the _hell_ have you been?"

"Owen!"

Jack strode across the room, hardly noticing the regulars who parted slightly for him, and threw his arms around the man stood at the opposite end of the bar, squeezing him tightly.

Owen smiled a little and then gasped out "Come on Jackie boy, let a guy breathe once in a while,"

Stepping back, Jack cast a glance around the room and noticed that most people had turned back to their own conversations, deliberately, he suspected, allowing them their privacy. Thank god that they knew when to be idiots and when to keep their eyes and ears shut.

"Come on, let's talk through here," Jack said, motioning through to a back room that was hardly ever used, "It's a long story and I know you'll want to hear the whole thing."

* * *

"So what you're saying," Owen asked, with the air of one struggling to wrap their mind around an idea, a concept, "Is that Harold went mad - no, madder - kidnapped some toff's son and locked him in your cellar with no means of actually looking after the guy, ransomed him, and is blackmailing you to help him with it?"

Jack let his head fall into his hands and said "Yes. That pretty much sums it up."

"So the next logical question is, what the hell has he got on you Jack? What could you possibly have done that he could hold against you like this?"

The look on Jack's face as his head rose was one Owen wouldn't be forgetting in a hurry, as Jack's blue eyes pierced his - the pain and anger in the set of his jaw and the lines around his eyes made Owen lean back.

"I haven't done anything. He's blackmailing me with the fact that if he wanted, he could easily implicate me for a murder I didn't commit, and no one would suspect a thing. It was this or go down for life."

It took Owen a few seconds to recover from Jack's speech, but eventually he shut his eyes and clenched his jaw, before opening them and saying "How the hell is he going to do that? And just _who_ exactly are you supposed to have murdered?"

Jack sighed.

"I don't know exactly who. My uncle's mixed up with some nasty people, I'm pretty sure it was him who killed the guy, but I can't be sure. I don't think he was acting alone either, but you never know. They - the people Harold's working for - only ever referred to him as Toclafane. Some sort of code name, I don't know, but that doesn't matter now he's dead."

"So he's going to frame you how?"

"He... He took me out to where the body was buried. Pointed a gun at me and made me dig deep enough to find it. Then he told me that if I didn't do what he wanted, he'd leave the gun used to kill him in my things, make sure my DNA and fingerprints were on it, stuff like that, and then call the police. They wouldn't even bother with an alibi, which I probably don't have. I'd just go down for life."

He watched as Owen considered it, watched the way the muscles in his left cheek twitched, the way his forehead wrinkled like he was trying to figure out a particularly hard maths problem, and knew exactly what question was coming next. He would have asked the same thing if he was the one in Owen's position.

"Right. Well then. I think the next logical question Jack, is what do you want me for? How can I help you, because you wouldn't be telling me all these things if there wasn't something you wanted from me."

"It's... complicated."

Owen laughed, "It's always bloody complicated with you mate, and I've never let you down before. Just tell me what you want and I'll see how I can help, okay Jackie boy?"

Jack glared at his friend as he reminded him "You know I don't like to be called that. Ever."

"I know," Owen smirked, "But it's still fun to get you all riled up once in a while."

After a few more seconds glaring Jack unfolded his arms and leant forwards, spreading his hands open palm down on the table and looking at Owen pleadingly as he spoke, saying "I need to get him out of there Owen, I can't leave him tied up like that, I can't! Harold's mad and he didn't plan this, he has no way of keeping Ianto alive and well enough to even ransom, I just need to get him out."

"Okay. But Jack, please don't tell me you're doing this cause you're in love with the guy." Owen laughed, his eyes lighting up humorously as his grin stretched to them, until he saw Jack's ever so slightly sheepish face.

"Come on Jack, really? You're in love with the guy? For the love of god, you've only known him, what, two, three days? All of which he's spent tied up in your uncle's cellar! Are you mad? In what world do you think this would ever constitute a good basis to a relationship? Or even that he would want a relationship in the first place?"

Jack groaned, slumping forwards 'til his head was cradled in his hands.

"Of course I don't think that, I know it's completely stupid to even think it, and he's probably straight anyway, and even if he wasn't, he wouldn't ever consider me in this situation, but just - you didn't see him, okay? I need to do this. I just need to. Will you help me?"

Owen sighed, cursing the fact that Jack was just too good with emotional blackmail, and then nodded, before asking "Just what exactly do you need my help with anyway? It's not as if Harold's ever gonna let me back in the house again after that thing with the chickens, which, I swear to god, was not my fault!" Owen raised his hands in the air in an 'I surrender' motion, before continuing "So I ain't gonna be around to sneak him out for you."

"I know, I know, I can do that bit myself anyway. And Owen, the chickens were totally your fault. It's the computer stuff i'm going to need your help with. He's got all these state of the art security camera's set up, face recognition linked to some sort of alarm system, I don't even know where he got it from or how he could afford it, but he does. In fact, he probably spent all the money he owes on it, that's why he's ransoming Ianto in the first place."

"Okay, well I'm decent enough with computer shit, but this sounds like a big job. I don't know whether I can do what you need Jack."

Jack sighed, closing his eyes again as he saw his perfect plan falling apart in front of his eyes.

"Well, I need to disable all the cameras, and make sure that the fact that they're off won't trip the alarms either. I'm just thanking god they're not installed in the cellar or the rest of that floor, otherwise he'd know exactly what I was doing, I had to take Ianto out to use the loo."

Owen nodded again, looking thoughtful.

"Well, it doesn't sound as if I can do it. But I know some people who might be able to, people who do this kind of shit normally help each other out. There's this one hacker who's pretty famous around these parts, they can do anything, and I mean anything, if it's to do with a computer, they've been there, got the t-shirt, had it mass produced and sold million, but only to the nice guys. They never do it for profit, and never if it's really criminal."

"And you know how to get into contact with them? Why them anyway, is it a he or she?" Jack asked, perplexed.

"We don't know. No one knows. Just got their MO on anything to do with them. Anything traceable goes right back to a webpage, and all that it says is 'Catch Me If You Can.'" Owen finished, looking a little sorry that he didn't have any more information.

Jack ground his teeth for a second before replying "I don't care if it's a man or a woman or a spotty teenager hiding out in their bedroom or even a little green man from mars, if they can help me shut down Harold's security. Can you really contact them?"

"I know someone who can."

Then please Owen, do it. Do anything, as long as it helps Ianto."

Owen nodded, smiling wryly, and ruffled Jack's hair before stepping out of the room.

* * *

After making his way quickly to the shops to facilitate his ruse of providing Ianto with more food and supplies, whatever his uncle took that to mean, he stepped back through the door, feeling much better than he had when he'd disappeared out of it perhaps half an hour or so earlier.

He felt lighter, as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, so light he could almost float away.

And he knew that his plan wasn't even half way there, that he and now Owen had a lot of work to do before they could even think about staging the break out, but everything had been set in motion, and it was that that Jack was thankful for. That that was making his heart soar as he made food up for Ianto again, grabbed some of his old clothes that he thought would fit Ianto, and made his way to the cellar.

When he'd managed to get all the locks unlocked and pushed open the door, he was greeted with the sight of Ianto sleeping, curled on his side in a foetal position with one blanket folded under his head and another covering him mostly. One of his legs was sticking out from under it, and his head was poking out the top, his hair tufting up at the top.

Jack thought he looked absolutely adorable.

Quickly shaking himself out of that thought, he strode forwards, setting the food and clothes down, before reaching over to gently shake Ianto awake. He paused for a moment to listen to the calm rhythm of Ianto's soft breathing, then reached fully and shook his shoulder a little, then a little more when he didn't stir, until he opened his eyes haltingly and blinked awake.

"Jack? What do you want?"

Jack grinned, "We've got a plan Ianto. A proper one. We're going to get you out of here."

That news shocked Ianto enough that he sat straight up, swaying slightly because of the head rush, ending up with his eyes about half a foot away from Jack's own.

"Really?"

Jack smiled, "Yes, really."

Then Ianto lunged forwards, closing the tiny gap between them easily to throw his arms around Jack and squeeze him as tightly as his weakened body could manage.

It was only as he pulled back, smiling slightly and saying quietly "Thanks." that it struck the two just how close they were.

They froze, noses almost touching, for a few seconds, before Ianto coughed a little and looked down, puling back and breaking the moment.

But Jack could have sworn for a second it had looked as if Ianto was about to kiss him.

* * *

**A/N: Well, a little bit of Janto interaction for those who were asking about it, and there will be much more in the next chapter, so don't worry ;) Let me know what you thought. x**

***I believe this means The Red Cow. If anyone reading this speaks Welsh and this is wrong i apologise, and i'll try to correct any mistakes.**


	10. Shattered

**It's lovely to know that people are still reading my rambling excuse of a story, so a heartfelt thanks to you guys. Apologies for any bad grammar or spelling, i should have clocked it all but i've been ill, so i might have missed a bit. Anyways, enjoy,**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

When he pulled back a little, thanking Jack, Ianto was immediately struck with just how close they were to each other.

If he leaned forwards just another inch he could have been kissing Jack.

And it was that thought that shocked him more than anything, because it was the result of all the things that had been bubbling up inside him since he first saw Jack, but it was the first time he had ever really let them shoot up to the surface and make themselves known, an it was sudden and shocking and not altogether a horrific proposition, even though surely it should have been.

He shouldn't be contemplating kissing another man, not one he hardly even knew and _certainly_ not one who was involved, however reluctantly, in his kidnap.

The whole scenario was absurd.

It would be dismissed as Stockholm Syndrome and madness by most sane people if they could tell what he was thinking, and that made him wonder whether he was ever sane in the first place.

And with that thought he jarred himself out of the relative safety of his thoughts, coughing a little and pulling back from Jack, trying to conceal the thought process that he had just had.

"So how, how er, what does this plan of yours entail? Will it really work?" He hardly dared to dream.

Jack, shaken out of his reverie about his insane thought of Ianto wanting to kiss him, blinked a little before answering "Well, the only thing really stopping us from getting out of this place is the CCTV that my uncle has rigged up in here, it's stupid face recognition software. He has some security patrolling the area but with the help of a few people who owe me favours I should be able to handle that, so it's just evading the CCTV that's the problem."

Jack paused for breath and was interrupted by Ianto saying "You know, I know exactly the person to help out with that, you should see her work, he'd be able to hack into that in no time! I just need to..." He trailed off.

"Need to what?"

"I can't talk to her now. Of course. Can't talk to anyone from my old life, or contact them."

Jack was silent for a moment, letting Ianto breathe, and then continued.

"It's okay Ianto, I've found someone to help with that part, don't worry. My friend Owen knows someone who is apparently one of the best hackers out there, he's pretty certain that he can get them to help us."

He purposefully didn't mention the fact that Owen hadn't been quite that certain about being able to contact the mysterious hacker. Having gone so far, it seemed ludicrous to disappoint Ianto after it all.

"Which means as soon as we get the go ahead with that, and I can get some people together to help with the physical side of escape, we'll be good to go. It shouldn't be too long now, fingers crossed."

But Ianto himself could see the flaw in that plan, even if Jack didn't seem to be addressing it.

"But Jack, your uncle will still be out there. Knowing you betrayed him. Won't he try to frame you, do whatever he can to get you arrested for whatever he's blackmailing you for?" He knew that Jack wanted what was best for him, could see his sincerity now, even as his head told him not to trust anyone, his heart screamed that he was telling the truth. But why would Jack risk that for him? There had to be safer ways for him, surely?

Jack just shrugged.

"I guess. But with him being convicted for kidnapping you, they're not going to like him, to be fair. And he probably won't have time to set it up before he's arrested, hopefully."

"But if he did, and they listened to him? What then?"

"Then I'd be arrested for murder."

It was at that point, with the look in Jack's eyes that said that he meant what he was saying, that he would accept the consequences and maybe even go to prison for a very long time just so that he could get Ianto out of his godforsaken cellar, that Ianto realised just how much he cared for, and respected, the man kneeling in front of him.

The fact that Jack would seemingly do that for him spoke volumes.

Jack could see the realisation dawn in Ianto's eyes about what exactly he had just said, and he knew that his feelings were getting a little too close to the surface for comfort, if he was revealing things like that, but he was struggling to restrain them, try as he might.

He expected the other man to express some gratitude. He even expected, or considered, that Ianto might smile at him, hug him again. Might show some sign that he was grateful for Jack's accidental declaration.

However, what he didn't expect was the kiss.

Ianto didn't even think as he leant forward and rested his hands on Jack's shoulders, pressed his mouth softly to his. His mind didn't start to set off alarms as he deepened the kiss a little when he felt Jack respond.

It didn't even start to melt when Jack responded properly, wrapping his arms round Ianto's shoulders.

It was only when the other man's tongue flicked over his lips that Ianto froze, mid embrace, and then moved his hands off Jack's shoulders to shove himself backwards, not caring when his back hit the cold concrete wall behind him with a thud. He kept his eyes squeezed shut and clenched his hands into fists as if it could erase the past thirty seconds, and had no idea what to do.

Not that Jack had any idea what to do either.

He had hardly begun considering that he really might be gaining Ianto's complete trust, and then the beautiful, broken man he had been trying to keep himself from falling quietly in love with was leaning forwards and kissing him with no warning whatsoever. It made alarm bells ring in his head at first, when Ianto was just pecking his lips, and then suddenly it was as if his body unstuck itself as he subconsciously forced himself to respond, overriding the lockdown that had struck his body since the first touch.

It was like he was on auto-pilot, his body just responding to basic human programming as he wrapped his arms around Ianto, pulling him closer, inhaling the other man's musky scent, not caring that he hadn't been able to shower in days.

But that was the point when his brain finally managed to catch up with the rest of him, and he realised that he shouldn't be doing what he was doing, shouldn't be letting Ianto do what he was doing. Not only because Jack was sure that he'd end up regretting it later, but because he shouldn't be taking advantage of Ianto's probably fragile mental state when he was partially responsible for that mental state in the first place.

But just as Jack was about to pull away, make his apologies and some stupid rushed excuse and leave quickly, Ianto managed it for him.

The native Welshman had shoved Jack's shoulders hard as he pushed away from him, and Jack opened his eyes to see him trembling ever so slightly as he sat ramrod straight up against the wall, eyes closed. His hands were clenched so tightly at his sides that Jack could see the stretched, taut, skin around his knuckles where the forced pressure was turning them white.

And while if he had been the one planning to leave, he would have left Ianto alone and quickly made his exit, seeing Ianto push him away and react like that, when he had been so happy earlier, made him realise that he should stay, at least until Ianto calmed down.

"Ianto? Ianto, are you... well, are you okay?"

There was a few seconds of silence when Jack started to wonder if he was ever going to get an answer, or whether Ianto had gone mute.

But then a small voice rang out in the echoey room.

"Yes. I - no! I mean yes. God, I don't even know what I'm doing any more!" Ianto moaned, his hands unclenching as he reached forwards to rest his head in them.

"I'm not doing this. I can't be doing this. I'm not shut up in a cold dark room with hardly any food, no bathroom facilities and handcuffs that still rattle every time the wind picks up. I'm not."

Jack leaned back on his haunches again, knowing that Ianto wouldn't welcome any unwanted and unexpected advances, however innocent they were. He desperately wanted to hug the Welshman, to comfort him and tell him everything would be okay in the end, but he didn't want to make false promises until he was 100% sure, and he knew Ianto couldn't handle it.

"This isn't happening at all, it's all inside my head. I'm going to wake up again soon and it will be the night after the ball and I'll be crashing on Tosh's floor again, hungover and feeling like shit while she busies herself making breakfast and lectures me on the evils of drinking. This is all a dream."

Ianto was becoming more and more hysterical with every word, practically rocking backwards and forwards as he spoke, and it was killing Jack to stay where he was and not lean forwards to help.

"Of course it is, things like this don't happen to me. Don't happen to anyone. No one gets kidnapped in the middle of Cardiff these days, it's stupid. It just does not happen. I'm not a prisoner and I'm not starting to feel oddly comfortable with my forced captor and I did not just kiss him. I can't deal with this."

As Ianto paused in his speech for the second, maybe third time, Jack pushed forwards toward him for a split second, before freezing, but he needn't have worried, because the Welshman practically threw himself at Jack as he crumbled and started sobbing, clutching at Jack's sides.

His perfect composure, ever present politeness, the way that he held himself together in even the most stressful, the most horrific situations; it was gone. It disintegrated, falling to pieces in the wake of him finally recognising the situation, perhaps for the first time, he thought to himself.

And all Jack could do was watch as he fragmented, his perfect composure all but turned to dust.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed, let me know how you felt in a review if you feel like it :) x**


	11. Meeting

**Apologies for the long wait between chapters, i've been ill recently and just haven't been able to get writing done. Suffice to say quality may have suffered a bit, and it's shorter than i would have liked, but here's the next chapter.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

It hadn't been long before the news story broke.

Once the police were involved, they couldn't hide it from the public for ever, and others who has seen Ianto at the dance and then not heard from him since were starting to wonder about his whereabouts, and why they hadn't seen him recently.

The news channels had picked up on the story by the time it was a week since his kidnap, and they were showing awful old photo's of him and footage that must have been shot about three years ago, meaning that he wouldn't even be that recognisable anyway.

Sympathy had started to pour into the Jones household like strong breeze that permeated the windows, and the amount of well wishers arriving on the front step was insane. Tosh was pretty sure that she'd never sat through so many late breakfasts and early lunches and late lunches and afternoon teas and dinner and suppers in her life, but everyone who had ever been connected to Ianto seemed determined to show their face and tell the Jones' just how horrifically sorry they were that 'such a wonderful boy' had been snatched.

That wasn't to say, of course, that there wasn't a good portion of those writing to them who showed no sympathy whatsoever.

Many letters arrived at the house after the first day suggesting that the kidnap hadn't happened, or was staged, that it was a ruse for attention and that the Jones' had planned it all as a scheme to get publicity.

Others still went one step further in accepting that it was a real kidnap, not a staged one, but saying that Ianto deserved it. Many suggested that his privileged, rich existence made it okay for someone to kidnap him, to demand money of his relatives, more still saying that he deserved it, that he was a 'stuck up bastard' who had it coming to him.

Tosh tried to open all the letters she suspected were non-complimentary, and made sure that they formed an assembly line to open the letters when they could, positioning herself at the end so she had to deal with the ghastly content of the letters.

But she always somehow missed a few, and she and Rhiannon could always tell when they had an unsavoury letter, as his parents, Bryn and Meghan, would cringe, dropping the letter, his mother sniffling into her tissue as she battled hard not to cry.

It made Tosh want to wring the necks of anyone who spoke even one bad word about Ianto.

But they had to just continue on, hoping that something would happen, something would change the situation they found themselves it.

The police hadn't found anything since the scrap of chloroform imbued cloth in the back alley of the hotel, and nerves were starting to wear thin whenever they were mentioned.

She was still in contact with Dr Smith, and he seemed to be progressing a little further than the police had, somehow predicting a route away from the kidnap site and out towards the outskirts of the city, how Tosh did not know. But even he was starting to his dead ends with no new evidence available to go on.

No witnesses had come forwards, no one had seen anything suspicious around the hotel at the time it was supposed to have happened. Or at least that's what police said. Last time she had checked in with John, Rose had smiled and said that they might have a few leads on witnesses, but it would take a little while. She had no idea how, when the police couldn't manage it, but she wasn't going to complain.

She was just anxious for any news, any little smidgeon of news about Ianto that she might possibly be able to lay her hands on. She was tired of the announcements on the news getting responses just to realise that the person with so called 'information' was either lying or completely insane.

So it was a complete shock, and a distraction, when she was emailed out of the blue off an untraceable account (she checked) asking her, under her website codename, whether she was available for hire.

As a hacker.

For a second she dismissed it out of hand, just automatically didn't consider it because of the situation with Ianto. But she found herself going back to it after a while, re reading it through and wondering just how much help she could be in the investigation anyway. It had ground to a halt on the police side and was going very slowly on the private detective front, and she was going stir crazy shut up inside trying to help, and not managing to get anywhere or do anything useful.

At least this would be a distraction. Something that would keep her sane.

She emailed back, careful to make everything completely untraceable, even to the most skilled of hackers, and waited for details of what they wanted. She normally didn't do work on commission, preferring to pick and choose her own cases and her own battles to fight, but she reasoned it wouldn't hurt to see what they wanted.

And the reply came faster than she expected. Apparently the mysterious emailer wanted her to hack a CCTV system, one with face recognition, for some unspecified reason, although she figured it was probably to do with getting someone in or out of the property and not wanting the owner to know. She had no idea why, but sheer desperation to be away from the constant fear about Ianto made her accept the offer, at least preliminarily.

* * *

After struggling with her conscience over whether she should accept the emailer's offer while Ianto was still missing, Tosh eventually decided that it was better than sitting around getting more and more paranoid and anxious and not getting anywhere.

Ianto would have wanted her to carry on with her life and help other people.

So she emailed them back and tentatively accepted the offer.

The response she received was overwhelming to say the least.

Whoever it was started off by thanking her so profusely that she was blushing by the end of it, and she was pretty sure that the emailer was a man by the way that he seemed to unconsciously flirt when trying to flatter someone.

The gist of their proposal, apart from the bare bones that she had assumed from his previous email, was that a friend of his was trying to get himself, and possibly someone else, she wasn't sure, out of the house where the security system was installed, and needed the system software hacked and cut off to do it.

Whilst she thought the emailer didn't want her to know exactly why his friend needed to get out, she sensed that it was urgent, and that he wasn't asking for monetary gain, or even to commit a crime. He seemed to just be in it to help his friend, from a situation that he talked about like it was quite dangerous.

That was what swayed it for her really.

He just seemed so truthful, so sincere, that she couldn't not help him.

Ianto had always teased her about being too kind, too quick to see the good in people. But when someone was really in need, and she could do something about it, she did.

But meeting up with the guy was not what she was expecting.

She was expecting an older man, probably in his fifties, balding and a little chubby.

It made no sense really why that type of guy would know who she was and what she did, but that was still the picture that had formed in her head.

So she was pleasantly surprised, shocked even, when the emailer arrived to meet her in the small, out of the way café they had agreed on as a meeting place.

He was young, probably early twenties, in a battered leather jacket, with a great smile and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Tall and lean, but in a quite muscled way, like he worked out but wasn't a gym maniac. Compact, but could still pack a punch.

And he, after glancing around and spotting the red pen she had behind her ear, the sign they had agreed on when they had decided to meet, was walking towards her and grinning so adorably that she felt her heart flutter in her chest.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed, although there was a lot of narrative and not much speech, if any. Let me know what you think x**


	12. Between Dreaming And Waking

**A very short chapter today but i guess you'll see why. Apologies for the extreme delay between the last chapter and this one, i was on holiday and then had some bad news which meant unfortunately the muse left me for a while. But i'm back now and hopefully posting will pick up again. (Please note the change in rating.)**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Warm hands were pushing their way under his shirt, sliding up his sides and then wrapping around his back, well muscled arms following them until he was being held fast in a tight yet comfortable embrace.

There were soft lips enveloping his, fighting his as they danced over each over, and he felt a tongue sweep out, the tip brushing over the seam of his lips, making them tingle and causing him to gasp, inadvertently letting the searching tongue explore inside his mouth.

He fought back, his own hands coming to rest on smooth cheeks, thumbs brushing a strong jaw line. Framing his partners face, he angled his body backwards, his momentum and body weight causing them both to fall, landing on soft sheets.

A comforting an exhilarating weight lay atop him, as hands explored once again, reaching down towards his waist, tips of fingers inching their way below the waistband of his trousers, tracing patterns across his hips and along his stomach before his button and zip were suddenly attacked in a frenzy, the metal pushed quickly out of its constraint and the zipper dragged forcefully down.

The same warm hands were now travelling closer and closer to where he was almost moaning for them to be, brushing across the cotton of his underwear and then slipping inside it, teasing and tantalizing for an age before wrapping around his achingly hard cock.

He arched his back as best he could, the automatic response to the pleasure that he was feeling with talented hands sliding up and down his cock, eliciting a drawn out moan that embarrassed him even in his pleasure induced haze.

Scrabbling for purchase, his hands locked on to his partners shoulders, clinging to the material covering them desperately as he leant up, scattering kisses and occasional bites on the neck and exposed throat that was above him. Opening his eyes he could see the pale column and the red marks his mouth had made, before letting his eyes travel upwards, locking onto a pair of blue eyes.

He looked just in time to see them wink at him, before the head was bowed, moving away from his face altogether as the weight on top of his shifted, the pace set by the talented hands stuttering and faltering, making him moan once again in a combination of annoyance and bliss.

But before he could complain they were replaced by a tight, wet heat that by far exceeded any of his expectations, the fluttering of a tongue catching him so off guard that, with a flash of white followed by red across the back of his eyelids, he came, sighing and moaning one word as he sank back into relaxed elation.

"Jack."

As the realisation sank in he snapped awake, finding his legs twisted in the accumulated blankets in his corner of the cellar, a sticky, uncomfortable feeling forcing home the fact that his dream had actually happened.

His breathing was coming in quick bursts, his cheeks feeling like they were on fire, and nothing short of a handful of sleeping pills could make him forget what had just happened, make him erase the sound of him climaxing as a dream Jack Harkness sucked his dick with abandon.

But his mortification could apparently get worse, as just before he could bury his head under the blankets and try to block out reality the man himself appeared at the door, looking in uncertainly.

"Ianto? I thought I heard you call my name?"

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**A/N: I upped the rating to M in light of this chapter, and also probably later ones, so if any of you were rooting for that, let me know and hopefully i won't disappoint. Thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed. x**


	13. Making Plans

**Hopefully i'll be able to keep to about one chapter a week from now on, but feel free to give me a shout if i'm taking too long... Sometimes i'll be stuck and a little bit of encouragement is all i need! Thank you for sticking with this story so far, and i hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Tosh gestured for the adorable stranger to take the seat opposite hers and smiled back at him, hoping that the job, or whatever it was, was going to turn out well, without complications, because she didn't want to give him any reason to dislike her. Well she wanted the job to go well, obviously, but if this stranger wanted to take hr out for a drink whilst they discussed it -at length - she wouldn't be complaining.

"Owen Harper." He said, leaning across the little table a bit so that he could offer her his hand.

She was pretty sure it was his real name, which meant that he was either new to the business or didn't care who knew about him. Either way, she never gave out her name to anyone who contacted her hoping to acquire her services and knowledge about computers like Owen had, so as she reached her own hand across the table she nodded and replied "Pleasure, I'm Naoko Mori." It was her grandmother's name and the one she always used for business.

However, to her surprise, he hand was accepted but not shaken.

Instead, Owen grasped it and lifted it to his lips, pressing a soft kiss against it before winking at her and then letting go, stepping backwards to sit down. It took her a second to think clearly again before she could sit up straight in her chair and get down to business. She really wasn't used to men showing her any sort of attention, let alone kissing her hand, and never ones as charming and good-looking as Owen.

"Okay, um, well, I mean - What exactly is it you require my help with Mr Harper?"

She was cut off as he interrupted, saying "Owen, please!"

Smiling a tiny bit, Tosh tried to hide it as she nodded in acknowledgement and then continued ,"You were understandably vague in your emails, as one always should be, but before I definitely agree to help you I need to know exactly what I'm dealing with so I can consider whether it's a realistic proposition. Also whether I feel like it's something I want to be doing. I may use some perhaps not too legal means to gather information but I don't like hurting anyone, and I'm certainly no criminal."

Owen grimaced a little and then nodded, picking at the sleeves of his leather jacket as he said "Well, what I'm hoping you'll do for me - help me do - involves criminals, but" He hastily added, stressing the word when Toshiko had looked like she was going to move (she was), "You'll be stopping them from doing something criminal, so really it's not bad at all."

She could see that he was worried, but she really did want to help him, and making sure that the criminals didn't always win was something that struck a chord with her, especially in the current situation, with Ianto missing and the police not much help. Detective Smith was doing his best, but there was only so much to go on.

"Okay, I'm still listening. It sounds okay so far, but you haven't convinced me yet. What are the particulars of what you need me to do Owen? I might not even be able to do it yet." She knew that she probably could, but for modesty's sake, and the fact that sometimes, it was just too complicated to risk, she always let them know that.

Owen grinned and leaned towards her as he replied "Oh but you can do anything Miss Mori. I've seen some of your work, you'd put Lisbeth Salmander to shame with your work!", referencing the hugely popular Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, the infamous 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

Extremely flattered by the compliment, Tosh blushed profusely, letting her hair fall in front of her face as she always did when she was embarrassed. It served as a defence mechanism, not letting them see her reaction, and it also gave her time to recover, because she knew she looked hideous with flushed cheeks.

"Thank you Owen, but I somehow doubt that. However, I'm sure I can help with whatever it is you need, so why don't you tell me about it and I'll see what we can work out."

Tosh listened as he explained his way through the entire problem, starting with his friend's uncle and the blackmail, to the person he was looking after for his uncle who the man intended to harm. Owen said that the best way of stopping him from coming to harm was removing him from the equation entirely, but that the specialised security system with face recognition software stopped them from just smuggling him out.

They had started to plan a non-suspicious way to remove him from the building, but needed not to be seen on the cameras while they did so, which was impossible with them in the state that they apparently were. But as Owen's friend's uncle had the camera's monitored, would know if something went wrong with them, they couldn't just cut the cable's and escape. So they needed some way of keeping the face of the man in danger off the cameras while still making them appear normal to whoever was monitoring them.

"So are these cameras watched by someone on the premises? Or is the job outsourced to an outside company who ten call up if anything is amiss?"

She could see her question took Owen by surprise for a second, but after a moment's thought he seemed to return fully to the room and answer "There's someone monitoring the images in the house during the day, and a company is employed to watch the tapes at night. But the uncle also has monitors in his room, so he could be watching at any time, we really don't know. He mostly doesn't, but might be."

Thinking over it for a minute, Tosh replied "Okay, I think I've figured out a way we can do this. If I can get into the computers, provided that it's recorded onto them and not fed through some insane scrambler that even I couldn't decode, I'll be able to record the half hour before your escape is scheduled from and repeat it on a time loop. That way, no one will see anything untoward, and you can get out without detection. You'll only have a half hour window because most normal systems can't support a loop much bigger than that, but as long as nothing extremely unusual happens in the looped half hour no one should know the difference."

Owen looked like he was about to comment, but she held her hand up firmly but kindly so that she could finish.

"Therefore, it think the easiest time to stage this escape is at night. Not only is it less likely that there will be other people around to make it hard for you, but it's some night shift slob from a company who is watching the videos. During the day it will be someone close to the owner, your friend's uncle, I presume, who will watch diligently and know the layout and what's happening. They're much more likely to pick up on the video loop. A company peon who doesn't know the building and has no actual interest in it past it being a boring part of his next paycheck? He won't notice. I'm betting on it."

Once she'd finished Owen took a moment to let it all sink in, knowing he'd made the right decision when he'd asked for her help, then replied "Okay, you're right. When can we start?"

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**A/N: I know that was quite short but the chapters will get back to their normal length soon i promise. Please let me know what you liked or didn't, how i could improve :) Thanks x**


	14. Realisations

**I'm sorry again for the insane wait between chapters, it seems like this fic just didn't want to be written the past few weeks, i've had writers block like a bitch as well as having to be away from my laptop for a week while i was down in London for the Olympics (not that i didn't enjoy them!). But finally, here it is, and it's some proper Janto interaction for you!**

**Hope you enjoy,**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Ianto could feel his cheeks burning bright red as he sat up straighter, trying in vain to rearrange the blankets into any sense or normalcy.

Every move he made amplified the sticky, uncomfortable feeling that made him constantly aware of what he had just dreamed about, and he found that he could hardly look Jack in the eye as he choked out "It was no-nothing... I just thought I heard you outside. Yes, I thought you were outside and wondered whether you had breakfast for me. So I must have called your name unconsciously."

His cheeks were still flaming as he stammered out his fake explanation, but his breathing was starting to return to normal, and he felt almost able to look at Jack and not want to hide at the sight of him. He was cringing on the inside, and he didn't think he would ever shake the awkward feeling in his gut that Jack was provoking as he stood in the doorway, as good looking as ever and with an adorable but slightly patronising smile on his face.

"That's fine Ianto but I was actually coming to see if you wanted lunch. It's just past three in the afternoon." Jack laughed a little, stepping further into the room so he could shut the door behind himself and not attract attention from the other people in the house.

Ianto blinked, still not quite awake enough to make sense of the fact that he had slept solid for about seventeen hours. Unless of course, he hadn't gone to sleep as early as he thought he had. He had no real sense of time at all in the cellar, relying on Jack's meal time stops at the room to keep his timekeeping anywhere close to accurate.

Jack, seeing his confusion, added "I brought your tea a little later than normal last night, so you might not have gone to sleep as early as you normally have been doing. But I think your sleep patterns must be messed up because of the lack of sunlight, the lights turning on and off depending on whether Harold's home or his minions are - It must be hard and I'm sorry, but really, honestly, I'm working on getting you out of here. I have a friend who's great with computers, and he's trying to find a way to get you past the security cameras. Then all we need is a distraction and we're home free." He paused, looking at Ianto a little sadly for a second, before continuing, "You can go back to your life, and I can continue trying not to murder my uncle."

Hearing Jack say that, the wistfulness that infused his voice just a little bit as he said it, made Ianto realise how much he would miss the brash, loud, confident, cheerful American. He could hardly imagine life without him anymore, even thought it had only been a matter of a few weeks since he had been kidnapped, and with that he was reminded of the dream from before. Maybe he didn't want to leave him because he really liked him, and not just as a friendly face and a way out of his predicament.

Maybe he really wanted to see Jack again after he escaped.

But Jack gave him no time to think about his realisation, immediately coming all the way into the room and setting a tray of food down on the floor, before collecting the blankets that Ianto had been using and leaving a fresh pile that he had carried in slung over his arm. He also put down another pile of what Ianto thought were clothes, an idea that was confirmed when Jack smiled at him a little awkwardly and said "I'll just pop outside so that you can change and then I'll get these into the wash somehow."

Ianto hardly had time to think before he could hear himself saying "No don't worry about it, just turn around I don't mind. That'll save you standing out there where someone might catch you."

For a second there was silence, and then Jack coughed a little and slowly said "If you're sure? Okay I'll give you a minute then."

He turned around, facing the wall and the door to the cellar in a military stance oddly befitting his blue coat, feet spread shoulder width apart and hands clasped behind his back as though he was a high ranking officer watching drills.

Ianto shook his head firmly, trying to get the notion of Jack in full uniform out of his head, and quickly started undressing, his cheeks burning red again as he determinedly looked at the floor and not at Jack.

The rustling sounds of Ianto's clothing after a second alerted Jack to the fact that he was actually changing, and it was all Jack could manage to hold his position and keep his eyes trained on the door rather than turning around and letting the view of Ianto getting naked assault his eyes.

He knew he shouldn't. He knew that Ianto wouldn't want him to. But it didn't stop him from imagining the Welshman taking off his old clothes to change, wondering what he looked like under all the layers of fabric, whether he truly did look as mouth watering as Jack thought that he would.

Teeth clenched together he kept his eyes closed so he wasn't even tempted to peek, and resolutely started counting down from two hundred in his head, hoping he wouldn't explode with the desire to look before he reached nought.

A huff from behind him interrupted his counting and then he heard Ianto say "Erm, Jack?"

Unsure whether that was an invitation to turn back round Jack half turned and then stopped, his eyes still closed, a he answered "Yes?"

There was a pause and a sigh again before the Welshman replied "Can you help me please? I'm a little, well... stuck."

With that Jack turned fully around and opened his eyes, wondering what on earth Ianto meant, only to be greeted by the sight of Ianto naked from the waist up, with the sweater he had been wearing pulled up over his head, his arms and face stuck inside it so Jack could see nothing between his neck and the very top of his hair.

But he wasn't concentrating on that.

He was concentrating on the expanse of Ianto's chest that had just been revealed, the slightly defined muscles that seemed to ripple under his pale, creamy coloured and edible looking skin as he twisted, trying to free himself from the sweater. Jack was tracing the lines of Ianto's pecs with his eyes, letting them drift down to his abs and then skim down further to the little trail of hair that was leading down into the Welshman's borrowed pants.

It was quite a while after when Ianto made an annoyed noise that Jack realised that he was supposed to be helping.

He quickly tried to clear his mind of everything, striding over to Ianto and grasping the bottom edges of the sweater gently, pulling it up sharply and using one hand to make sure it didn't snag on his chin or in his hair, trying to ease the stuck button out of his hair. The offending button, one that was normally left on the inside of a garment in case one gets lost, was finally pulled free, and the sweater pulled off easily after that, Jack holding Ianto's arms above his head so he could pull it off, before dropping it silently to the floor.

Only to leave Jack holding Ianto's arms aloft as he looked into his face, their noses only an inch or two apart.

Then Jack realised he wasn't the only one breathing slightly irrationally, and as he looked in Ianto's eyes he saw a hunger there, one that shocked him, and he wasn't sure who was going to move first, and in which direction it would be.

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**A/N: Sorry about any mistakes i'm writing at about midnight on the night before my A-Level results come out at about six am so i'm tired but a huge bundle of nerves and unable to sleep right now. Hope you enjoyed this chapter better than i'm going to enjoy the next six hours!**

**And which direction do you think the move will be? And who from? Will they kiss or not? x**


	15. Giving In

**I am once again sorry for late posting, i have no excuse other than that college is finally catching up with me again and i've been very busy with re-enrolling and getting work sorted this week. But here is chapter 15 and i hope you enjoy, although it comes with a 'This is part of the reason i rated this M' warning.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Ianto wanted to blink, he wanted to move away, wanted to stutter apologies and hide from his feelings and wanted to push the situation away from him and pretend that it wasn't happening, but there was something inside him stopping him.

There was something holding him there looking into Jack's eyes, able to see the heat that was burning in them and the desire that he was half convinced was a delusion. And like he wasn't in control of his own body he could feel himself leaning in, even as inside he was screaming at himself to get as far away from temptation as possible.

He could feel Jacks hot hands tight around his wrists as he gave in and closed his eyes, letting the need he felt take over.

And suddenly his lips were on Jack's, soft and yielding yet somehow firm as well, and his arms were being released as he felt Jack's hands drop to his face, the other man's thumbs brushing his cheekbones as the fingers splayed out across his neck, drawing him in to Jack's returned kiss.

Jack himself could hardly believe what was happening.

He had been thinking about it, maybe even wishing for it a little bit, but he had never imagined a time or a place where it would be feasible that Ianto would show any interest in him.

Not the posh city boy with all the money and the cultured accent and the happy, healthy, carefree life. And the fucking fiancée to boot. He had never shown any inclination, given any hints or even looked as if it would be a possibility, but there he was kissing Jack like he was water food and air all rolled into one, everything he needed to survive.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and half convinced it was a dream anyway, Jack shoved his thoughts to one side and decided to make the best of a wonderful opportunity while he could.

Because while there was no denying that he liked Ianto's personality and his temperament, and the way he managed to stay strong and hold up whilst under such pressure, Jack was no monk, and he wanted to appreciate the beautiful body in his arms before he lost the chance.

He slid one hand up and tangled it in Ianto's hair, hearing the other man moan a little into his mouth as he did so. Emboldened by it, Jack opened his mouth a little, ran his tongue along Ianto's lips and was ecstatic when the Welshman responded in kind, inviting him in and letting their tongues tangle. His hands moved downwards to slide around Jack's waist, before one of them slipped even further down so it was resting on the curve of his arse, making him stiffen a little before relaxing back into Ianto's embrace, and sinking further into the kiss.

Ianto could hardly think, hardly do anything but continue to kiss Jack, letting his hands have free reign to rove over Jack's body with abandon, tracing every dip and every curve, every taut muscle that he could reach.

It was inconceivable how much the situation differed from any similar ones he had endured before, how the merest touch of Jack's hands on his own skin, his bare chest, felt like it was sending hot flashes electricity straight into his bones, making him want to melt and burst out of his own skin all at once.

And then Jack's hands weren't just on his bare chest, they were sliding around his back and down inside the waistband of his pants, brushing over his arse. He could feel Jack's nails catch on his flesh a little and a gasp got caught in his throat, his eyes flying wide open to meet the other man's half closed ones.

Jack just smiled at him, a little half smile that made Ianto want to give in to whatever Jack wanted and just let himself be led, let himself go and just experience the pleasure that Jack was drawing out of him in waves, in hot pulses as they brushed up against each other and he could feel Jack's dick up against his leg. He knew that his own must be pushing into Jack's leg, and he nearly backed off at the sensation, at the moment of realisation that it was Jack he was kissing, it was a man, but the feelings were just so good that he pushed past that realisation and kept going, kept kissing Jack.

He moved his own hands down Jack's body, grasping his shirt at the bottom where it bunched up at his belt and tugged it up gently but determinedly.

Jack got the message and moved his fingertips away from Ianto's arse, raising his arms over his head so that Ianto could draw his shirt up and pull it off, much the same as Jack had done for him only a minute or two ago.

Discarding it unthinkingly Jack surged forwards once he could use his arms again, slowly backing Ianto up against the wall of the cellar, loving the feel of Ianto under his hands as he did so. The beautifully muscular chest felt even better than it looked and Jack ran his hands over Ianto's abs and listened to the welshman's breath hitch and then settle back into a more regular rhythm as they settled on his waist.

Once Ianto's back was against the wall Jack could easily reach down as well, keeping their mouths locked together as he tugged at the waistband of Ianto's pants, a pair of old, scruffy jeans that he had worn out, but had been all that he could smuggle in the day before. He pushed the button through the hole easily and then dragged the zip down, letting the back of his other hand brush over Ianto's erection as he did so, smiling as the gasp it elicited from the other man.

He wanted to take the time to savour Ianto's body but Jack knew that it wasn't the time or the place, so he simply pulled the waistband to below Ianto's knees and then carefully dragged his boxers the same distance, grasping Ianto's cock in his hand and stroking it as he did so.

He could hear and feel Ianto writhing and moaning a little against him at the touch, and increase his speed, adding a little twist of his hand every time it reached the head of Ianto's penis, which seemed to go down well from the reaction Jack was getting to his ministrations. He tilted his head back up and kissed Ianto again, sneaking a peak from under his lashes at Ianto's face, and he could feel himself hardening even more at the sight, something he hadn't even thought possible.

But even as they relaxed into a delicious rhythm, Jack was reminded of their situation as he heard distant footsteps, and he increased his rhythm even more, using all the tricks he had learnt in the last few years. He slid his free hand down from Ianto's face to cup his balls, rolling them a little in his palm, and prayed that they wouldn't be disturbed.

Had Ianto felt he was capable of speech at that moment, not that he was, he would have had no words to describe the sensations he was feeling as Jack caressed him, the twist and curve of his fingers pleasuring Ianto in ways he hadn't known were possible. When the hand crept down his chest to fondle his balls he almost lost it, his hands scrabbling to find purchase on Jack's bare back.

He didn't even have time to warn Jack before his orgasm came, and he flung himself on Jack, felt himself coating the other man's hand and probably his pants. But Ianto couldn't think to be sorry, or even anxious and a little scared like he would have expected.

All he felt was pleasure, bliss at the moment an his release and the person who was now holding him up as he sagged, his knees close to giving way. He could feel Jack lowering his down onto the blankets, and he opened his eyes to look into Jack's as he did so.

His eyes met Jack's blue ones and he managed to stutter out "Thank you." as Jack settled next to him on the floor. Ianto wanted to think about so much, but he couldn't keep his eyes open for long, and before he knew it he was falling asleep with Jack curled close around him on the floor.

* * *

**A/N: As always i hope you enjoyed and i hope that was okay seeing as i haven't written like that for a while, maybe six months or so ago on my Glee fic. So feedback is always appreciated. x**


	16. Time Loop

**I am so tired i can hardly even type. The last week and a half of college have made me feel like i've been hit by a sledgehammer repeatedly. And all we have in the house is decaff.**

**The being said, i hope this isn't _too_ badly written. Please, try your best to enjoy.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Waking up, Ianto felt like he had the first time he had regained consciousness in the cellar room that had seemingly become his home in the last week or so.

He was confused and felt woozy, and his eyes were crusted with sleep as he tried to sit up, slowly forcing his eyes open and yawning as he rubbed at them with his fists. There was something a little different to his present situation though, mainly the feeling that he couldn't quite describe that had settled in his stomach, not heavy but like a warm glow that was filling him up, spreading through his body.

Then he because aware that he was presses up against something else, something that he was pretty sure wasn't the hard concrete wall that he had been sleeping against for the past few nights.

Whatever he was leaning on was warm and comfy, and just as his eyes finally opened properly he realised that he was wrapped around whatever it was as well as having his head lay on it. He closed his eyes again, the weight of them seemingly increasing with every second, and then as memories of what had happened before he fell asleep came back he wrenched his eyes open again and flew away from his pillow, which turned out to be a very comfortable and very awake looking Jack.

The other man was staring down at him with what Ianto thought could be confusion or annoyance as he frantically tried to pull his arms away from their position firmly around Jack's waist, only half succeeding, and I was only when Jack gripped his flailing wrist and said softly "Ianto, what's wrong?" that he gave up and just slumped back down onto the floor, still careful to detach himself from Jack.

"I'm sorry Jack I know that what I did was inexcusable especially considering all the help you've give me when you didn't need to. It was a despicable way to pay you back but I couldn't resist. I don't even know why but please Jack you have to carry on helping me I can't stay in here like this for much longer!"

He trailed off, leaving Jack staring at him once again, only this time Jack really was staring in confusion.

He had thought he had finally got his dream come true, even if it was only for a tiny space of time, only to have Ianto apologise!

"No, Ianto, please, don't think that! Of course I'm going to stay and carry on helping you, I couldn't not do! And there was nothing wrong with what you did, I loved every minute of it, it was..."

Jack sighed, seeing the look of panicked insecurity flit over Ianto's features, and gritted his teeth, leaning forwards and down to Ianto and kissing him, just soft and gentle but enough for Ianto to know that he was wanted. Or so Jack hoped.

If the frantic and pleasurable reaction Jack got after a few seconds of nothing was anything to go by, Ianto had got the message. Loud and clear.

However, it was just as Jack started sinking into the kiss in the knowledge that Ianto definitely wanted him, he remembered that even though it was only just over an hour after Ianto had fallen asleep, his uncle would be wondering where he was. And Jack could tell Harold was starting to get a little suspicious, like he could tell something wasn't going right.

So he pulled back and took a deep breath, before explaining "Ianto, I have to go. My uncle will be starting to wonder where I am and I need to reassure him. I'm truly sorry but..." He trailed off, gesturing to the door.

Ianto just smiled sadly, and kissed him again, before slumping back against the wall.

* * *

Tosh was finally making some progress with the hacking case she had taken on and she was thankful for it.

She had managed for the first time to get past the security measures on the CCTV system that was used in the building, and was taking a little time to observe what exactly was going on that could need monitoring all the time.

So far she wasn't really seeing anything.

There were a few people wandering around, shuffling paperwork or prepping food in the kitchen, and one man sat in what she assumed was his office, alternating between reading over a letter on his desk and pacing the length of his office every few minutes. She wasn't sure what was wrong, but she was going to take a guess at the fact that the piece of paper he was reading over contained either bad news or a decision he _really_ didn't want to make.

But either way, she didn't really have time to just sit back and watch what went on. She needed to do her research, and dig deeper into the system if she could, so that she would be able to create a time-loop and sync it perfectly with the recording without anyone who was watching being suspicious. She also needed to make sure that she could convince the system to view her as an administrator, allowing her to make adjustments as and when they were needed and not be locked out by the main computer.

As far as she was aware, and from a quick scan of the room on her monitor, the man sat at his desk was the boss, or whatever variation of that he wanted to go by. And so the screens must be accessible to him, so she needed to make sure any changes she was making would go unnoticed.

She made sure he was distracted, once again pacing the room, this time with a freshly poured glass of what looked like whisky in his hand, and then started to construct the time loop.

First, searching back through the recorded footage and finding a time when there were a few people in the building but not too many. She didn't want the time loop to attract attention, so getting the right balance was an absolute necessity. It also had to be a time that was right for the time of the escape, and as far as Owen had discussed with her it was being arranged for about nine o'clock at night, when there would be the least people around and those who were in the property would be less likely to be on extremely high alert.

Of course, she was going to leave out the office room, because if he was in fact watching from inside the room he would have to see himself as he was, or he would realise what was happening pretty damn fast and then the whole operation would go out the window.

But one by one she copied one hour of footage from each of the other cameras, and began the painstaking task of linking them all up with each other so the times synced perfectly, making sure that there wasn't too much of a noticeable skip where the two parts of video would link into each other, like people appearing out of thin air when the loop started, and just tidying some of the video quality settings up as she went so they could get the best out of their ploy.

With all the videos grouped together and set so that they wouldn't be too noticeable, Tosh then set them on a timer to start on the time and date she and Owen had agreed upon, making sure that they could be changed if something went wrong and it had to be postponed.

She was just finishing when she realised that even if there was a little bit at the back of her mind that was always focused on the fact that Ianto was missing, this job had taken her mind off it to the extent that she didn't have the godawful sick-to-the-pit-of-her-stomach sensation that she normally did. In fact, she had actually felt exhilarated, something she hadn't even considered before since he went missing.

She was just considering the probability of such a job just falling into her lap when her door burst open and a very out of breath Rose burst in.

"Toshiko we've... we've found something." She panted, nearly bent double with her hands on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath.

As she was greeted with silence she straightened up and took a few more deep breaths, before continuing, with a lot more coherency, "We've acquired some witness statements that might be able to lead us to Ianto!"

And like that, Tosh was running out of the door.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked it and if you did, any and all feedback would be lovely! x**


	17. Plans

**I have a lot of apologising to do for the fact that it has taken me this long to post a new chapter. I have been snowed under with three different lots of A-Level coursework drafts and re-drafts and also had my applications to universities taking up a lot of my time. This culminated with me having a massive mental block and just not being in the right frame of mind to write at all, and i was left with a half written chapter for months. This was all compounded by a very bad break up recently, and until sd4ianto prompted me a few times lately telling me they were waiting for a new chapter eagerly i was just trying not to think about it. However, they made me give it a go with a new perspective and here's what happened. Hope you like it...**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

After finishing being his uncle's lackey, something which he really didn't want to talk about with Ianto, Jack was about to head surreptitiously back down to the cellar room where the other man was when he received a phone call from Owen, after what seemed like twenty or so missed calls.

Frantically fumbling it open, Jack answered as fast as he could, wanting to know what was so urgent as to prompt Owen Harper of all people to ring him so many times without leaving a single message.

"Owen?"

"Jack! Jack thank God I've finally got you mate, I've been calling all bloody hour!"

Jack sighed a little, "I know Owen I can see. Harold was forcing me to do his dirty work. But what were you so desperate to talk to me about?"

He could practically hear Owen frowning on the other end of the phone, and he knew the roll of eyes that was bound to come next.

"I think we've finally got our way in mate!" He crowed down the phone, sounding far too excited than Jack thought it acceptable for Owen to be. He was supposed to be a grumpy bastard, not practically giggling like a five year old. But at that moment, he really didn't care, because whatever could get Owen in that kind of mood, it couldn't be bad.

Owen chuckled once more and then continued "My hacker friend's come through and she can get a time loop up and running and cover everything we need as soon as we need it. Keep Saxon's office running, make sure there are no jumps in the tape, completely professional! I told you she was the best in the business!"

"She?" Jack was momentarily distracted by the knowledge Owen was actually agreeing to be helped by a woman. It didn't really matter to him, he knew women could be incredibly intelligent, it just struck him as funny that a man like Owen was being taught a lesson or two by one who was better than him at something.

Owen frowned, "Don't be funny Jack, she's the best there is and holy shit is she beautiful! I thought she'd be forty and overweight but you should see her, and she's so funny and cool and-"

"Owen, shut up about this woman, I just need to know how the hell this is going to work." Jack rolled his eyes.

He was out of the house and walking down the road to the pub he and Owen sometimes frequented, pacing backwards and forwards every now and again to keep him away from civilisation while he was on the phone.

There was muttering on the other end and then "Okay here's how it looks like it'll have to go Jacky boy. Toshiko will start the time loop, giving us half an hour to distract everyone in some way to get them out of the way whilst we make sure Harold is in his office and then release Ianto, having already decided which is the safest route to take to make sure we aren't spotted at any time. Then we'll smuggle Ianto out of the area and take him to the nearest police station so he can stay safe and they can verify that he is who he says he is and is in fact safe and sound."

Jack considered that for a second and then said "Okay, I'm half impressed. But now we need to actually get everyone off the site for a start. Owen, we need more of a plan than that."

He could practically hear Owen rolling his eyes again on the other end of the phone.

"Fire alarm."

"What?" Jack was puzzled.

"Fire alarm. Pull the fire alarm to get everyone that you need out the building, Harold's bound to not care and stay in his office but we don't mind about that. Then we'll just have to figure out how to get Ianto out of the building without being noticed and we're all set."

Jack grinned, "Well I never thought I'd say this Owen Harper but you're bloody brilliant.'"

"Oi! Enough of putting on that accent! I get enough of it living here without hearing it off you too. But thanks Jack, never thought I'd hear you say that either. Of course, you're going to have to map out pretty boy's route, you know the layout much better than me." Owen reminded him.

He made that concession to Owen, he would be no help with the route through no fault of his own, but decided that even on his own he would be able to figure it out pretty quickly. He had already started mapping out the inside and outside of the building in his head, wondering what was the best way to get Ianto up from the cellar and then out of the house. The one thing he would need to check before he made any plans was where anyone inside the house would assemble if there was a fire. Obviously with it being residential there was no designated point for people to gather, but there would be somewhere where it was most likely that people would gather together, and Jack would have to avoid it.

"Okay, I think I've got the start of a plan for that anyway. Do you trust me?" Jack asked, laughing at how stupid it sounded.

Owen chuckled and then replied "Yeah, probably."

"Okay, well tell your Toshiko woman to have it ready to go in two days time. I'll get back to you on the time before the end of the day."

Owen confirmed and then hung up, presumably to go off and drool over the apparently hot girl he was talking computers with, and Jack started back towards the house, quickly sneaking in before anyone could see that he'd been out and start asking awkward questions. He headed down to the cellar on the double, stopping off for some food for Ianto on the way and grabbing some clothes, elated knowing he was able to tell Ianto that he would be out in a matter of days.

However, when he had successfully unlocked the door and made sure no one could hear it, he didn't quite expect what was waiting for him on the other side of the door, which was Ianto rushing at him from inside the room and pinning him against the wall as he kissed him practically senseless.

* * *

**A/N: I hope that went okay after so long not writing at all! Let me know!**


	18. Surprise

**Oh god, i am so sorry for the time between updates again this time. I don't even know what to say, except that exams and Christmas and a couple of pretty devastating family things don't make for a happy writer. This was nearly finished and about to be posted on Boxing Day, so i'm sorry for that delay, but you have someone to thank for kicking me into gear (you know who you are, keep messaging me to remind me to update if i leave it this long again!) and it finally got done. I'll stop rambling now and just let you read.**

**Enjoy some Janto interaction,**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

He didn't know what had come over him, but after having been locked in the cellar for however long with nothing to do but sleep or stare blankly at the walls thinking of everything he could have done differently in his life he started thinking more and more about Jack.

How he had hardly known the man for more than a week, maybe, he wasn't exactly even sure any more, and yet he found himself feeling closer to him and more connected to him that he ever had to anyone he had ever known, except maybe Lisa and Tosh, of course. He didn't make friends well, if at all, in the company of his peers, yet here he was half in love with a man who had barrelled into his life at high speed and tried to do the impossible for him without even knowing him.

He was fairly sure he wasn't coming down with a case of Stockholm Syndrome, because Jack wasn't exactly his captor really, but it was odd to him to consider the situation he found himself in.

Never having been with anyone really before, to practically having sex with a man he barely knew in a cellar whilst kidnapped. It was bemusing to Ianto that it was really happening - he still half expected to wake up in his comfy warm bed in his parents' house. But he knew that it was reality, that Jack had turned his world upside down in a matter of days and ripped up half the things he thought he knew about the world and a few hundred more he though he knew about himself in the process. Ianto didn't even think he knew he had done. It seemed almost like second nature to him.

It was at that point that he had to lean his head on the wall behind him and close his eyes, knowing he had to acknowledge it. He wasn't just 'half in love' with Jack Harkness.

He was pretty much completely and totally, not to mention idiotically, in love with Jack Harkness.

Sighing to himself as he accepted the inevitable, he nearly didn't hear the scraping noises coming from the other side of the room. But when he did his eyes snapped open, knowing instantly that the door was opening and that it surely only meant one thing: Jack was coming back.

He pushed up into a standing position, striding to the other side of the cellar just as the door opened, revealing Jack with a plateful of food in his hands and an almost shocked look on his face.

But Ianto didn't really care about any of that.

He just shut the door behind Jack and then pushed him up against the wall beside it, framing his face in his hands as he leaned in to kiss him.

Jack was still pretty shocked, but he was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he wound his arms around Ianto's waist, dropping the plate of food on the floor without a second thought. He pulled them even closer together, and responded in kind, his tongue searching in Ianto's mouth as warm hands brushed through his hair and caressed his neck.

Jackets and shirts and shoes and who knows what else were removed along the way to the other side of the room, as Jack pressed Ianto into the back wall over where he normally slept, the Welshman's back sliding down the wall and pulling Jack with him as he went.

They ended up in each other's laps in the blankets that passed for a bed, and Jack had lost all though of what he was supposed to be doing in there as he reached a hand into Ianto's boxers, finding his dick already hard and pushing up against the waistband.

Ianto gasped, eyes rolling up in his head a little as he felt Jack's hands on him, and he couldn't help but buck up into the touch, desperately wanting his boxers out of the way.

He returned the favour after he had stripped his boxers off, pulling Jack's quickly down his legs and sliding their cocks together. Jack grasped his hand around them both and Ianto saw stars. It was only when he felt pain that he realised it might have been because of the fact that he had slammed his head back into the wall instinctively, but the pleasure he was feeling drowned it out.

He could feel himself building to orgasm, his balls tightening, and he made the effort to open his eyes and look into Jack's, before crushing their mouths together in a sloppy kiss, all teeth and tongue. He came far quicker than he would have liked, raking his nails down Jack's back as his come splattered between their chests.

Jack leaned forwards, panting a little in his ear as he muttered something indecipherable and came too, before practically collapsing against him.

In his head, Jack was repeating 'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit' like a mantra as he realised just what he had said, that he had whispered 'I love you' into Ianto's ear as he came. He had never said that to anyone before, at least not anyone he was sleeping with. He had said it to his mother and father, yes, and even his brother before they had been killed. He had said I love you to a few people. But he had never meant it as in 'I am _in_ love with you' and it shocked him more than he would have though to realise that it was true.

But as he panicked, it came back to him what he was actually supposed to be there in the cellar for, except being jumped by Ianto.

Trying to get his breath back, he choked a little on his words at first before saying "Ianto, I - I came in here to tell you something important."

Sitting up straight, Ianto started to panic, thinking absurd things, absurd things like Jack having lied to him all the time, and that he was about to ship him off somewhere, or sell him into the slave trade, or -

He forced himself to calm down, reassuring himself that it seemed fairly absurd for Jack to want to sell him into the slave trade. Opening his eyes, not even realising he had closed them, he asked "What is it?"

Concerned at Ianto's apparent panic, Jack quickly reassured him that "It's nothing bad! In fact, it's brilliant. I've managed to find a way to get you out, help you escape from here and get back to your family."

For a second Ianto was silent, and Jack wondered what on earth he was thinking, but just as he was starting to get worried Ianto sprung back to life, flinging himself on Jack and wrapping him in a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh god, I can't thank you enough, how did you even manage it, when will it happen, oh god thank you!"

He spoke so fast that Jack could hardly tell what he was saying, but the smacking kiss he received after the speech made him think that maybe Ianto was a little happy.

* * *

**A/N: Idek if that was even good... my head is fairly muddled, so let me know whether i screwed up, okay? x**


	19. Escape

**Once again, I'm sorry about the delay. I won't waste time whining about my life, so I just hope you enjoy, and I'll leave my longer comments for the end. Thanks to sd4ianto again for the push to finish this when I was lacking inspiration.**

**Over and out xxx**

* * *

Owen was jittery with nerves.

He was normally the cool, calm, collected one; he was the joker and the suave bastard who just didn't care.

But now he cared, because it was Jack's life on the line, Ianto's future on the line, and he didn't want to muck anything up. So he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and muttered "You can do it. You'll be fine. Just smash the dam thing and run."

The 'thing' in question being the fire alarm, something which he still wanted to laugh at because seriously, who put fire alarms in their house? Well, apparently Harold Saxon did, and even though it was where he ran his 'business' from, it still seemed stupid to Owen. But that was irrelevant, because all that mattered was that there was one in the building, and it was pretty much the only sure-fire was of making sure everyone was out the building.

Everyone except from Harold, but they had a plan for that.

Opening his eyes again, he checked the length of the corridor again, to make sure no one was there, and then winked at the camera positioned at the end of the hall. It was the signal he had worked out with Toshiko for starting the time loop on the screens in Harold's office, and he was praying that she was set up and ready to go, because after another quick scan of the area, he drove a gloved fist straight through the 'break glass in case of fire' writing.

A piercing wail started up as he sprinted away down the corridor, and he decided hindsight was a bitch as he pictured the ear plugs sat on his kitchen counter.

* * *

Jack had checked no one saw him on his way down to the cellar, having to take a few detours to avoid being seen, slipping into the room as quietly as he could manage.

He had brought with him the suit Ianto had been wearing when he was first kidnapped, knowing that he wouldn't want to return to civilisation in old, mismatched cast offs. Owen had come to his rescue, managing to help him sneak it out the previous day and wash it at his house, before bringing it back in and miraculously managing not to be noticed with it, despite being called to see his uncle about how he was 'looking after' Ianto.

He had hated lying about his treatment, pretending he was not more than an unsympathetic jailer, but it was necessary, and in Jack's mind worth it if it meant they would manage to help Ianto escape undetected.

"I thought you'd like a change of clothes." He said through his smile at the way Ianto's face lit up.

He was obviously pleased at both the revelation of some decent clothes and the fact that Jack had obviously gone to great lengths to have his suit returned. Or at least, that's what Jack assumed he was thinking.

His assumption was only _slightly_ helped along by the fact that as soon as he saw Jack, then the folded suit, he stopped pacing about the room in a feverish manner and quickly jogged towards him, drawing Jack into a tight hug and practically squeezing the life out of him.

Kissing him lightly on the lips, Ianto murmured "Thank you Jack."

Chuckling, Jack drew back, ruffling Ianto's hair before saying "I'm glad you're excited about that, but we have more pressing concerns today. For instance, getting you out of here maybe?"

Ianto laughed once, a quick bark of the laugh that usually make Jack feel giddy and weak at the knees all at once, before sobering up, his arm drawing back around Jack's neck.

"Are you sure this will all go okay?" He asked tentatively, fiddling with a button on the suit jacket as he took it from Jack's hands.

Jack attempted to grin, hoping to dispel some of Ianto's fears.

"It'll go fine! Owen and I have never had a plan go wrong, and we even have backup in the form of a woman who apparently is a computer genius. Someone named-"

Just at that moment the fire alarm blared, alerting them to the fact that they had a half hour window to make sure the building was clear, keep Harold in his office and get Ianto out.

* * *

Toshiko sighed pensively, fiddling with her laptop settings again as she waited for the signal to start the time loop that would allow Owen his time for the master escape plan he was attempting.

Although she had been worried that she would feel like she was betraying Ianto working on a project that wasn't to do with finding him, because she was helping someone else, someone who sounded very much like he needed help, she actually felt good about it. It had distracted her from the gnawing guilt of having left Ianto alone at the ball, and the panic and tension and nervousness that had been the mainstay of the previous week or so, instead giving her something to focus on.

And someone to focus on. She couldn't help but admit, if only to herself in private, that Owen was dashingly handsome and completely charming, and that she was practically smitten already. She consoled herself by thinking that Ianto would be happy that she had found someone who she liked after years of being a bacheloress.

If only he would appear on the screen though, it would set her mind at ease.

Owen had specified which camera he could give the signal to, knowing in advance which fire alarm he planned to smash, and she had been watching the camera feed religiously ever since midday, which was the time they had agreed upon for starting the loop, provided Owen gave the signal.

It was, by Tosh's watch and laptop, thirteen minutes past twelve, and the only person she had seen in the hallway was one of the lingering, bodyguard types who seemed to populate the building. No sign of Owen, and she was starting to get nervous.

But just as she was getting ready to call him and see what has going wrong, he appeared just within range of the camera.

He was sneaking along the length of the corridor in a decidedly silly fashion, as if he was in Mission Impossible or some other spy film, and she couldn't help but giggle as he froze, and checked his surroundings.

She was sure he thought he was being careful, but from her point of view he was merely highly comedic.

However, with a quick glance around once again, he turned to face the camera straight on and looked right into it, pausing a moment before grinning and winking at her.

That was the signal (he had chosen it) that was her cue to start the time loop of footage, and she took the time for one swift check to see whether Harold was watching the screens, which he wasn't. Smiling to herself as she watched Owen smash the fire alarm, she entered the commands which would kickstart the loop and give them half an hour to do their work.

* * *

Trying to ignore the shrill sound of the fire alarm that was echoing around the room and making it ridiculously hard to concentrate, Ianto nodded at Jack, not bothering to try and shout over the noise, and gritted his teeth as he started to shrug out of his clothes, a pair of ripped jeans and a hooded sweatshirt that was about two sizes too big for him. Jack started to turn away to give him privacy, but at that point Ianto didn't care what Jack did and didn't see, he had seen it all before anyway.

So he rolled his eyes and shoved the sweatshirt into his hands mid turn, mouthing 'Stay there' as he grabbed the shirt that was slung over Jack's shoulder and started pulling it on and buttoning it up. As soon as he had finished that he stripped out of the jeans and aimed them too at Jack as he grabbed the pants and jacket, hopping from foot to foot and trying to shrug into first one sleeve then the next at the same time. Jack had given up any pretence of not looking and was instead tucking the bow tie into his pocket and bending down to help him put the shoes back on. Outfit sorted Ianto straightened up, kissed Jack lightly again, and then turned towards the door.

He had to take a few deep breaths just to stop himself turning away again as the reality of the situation hit him. The whole thing had seemed so unreal and now here he was finally with an end to it in view, and he was more scared than he had ever been. He was scared of Jack's uncle, certainly, and who wouldn't be when they had been kidnapped and kept captive in a dark cellar. But he was also scared of what returning to freedom would mean. He was going to have to return to his normal, mind numbingly boring life again, and fall back into the endless routine of pretending. Pretending that he was the perfect specimen of a man. Pretending to be the son his parents expected. Pretending that he was going to marry Lisa. Pretending that he loved Lisa.

Pretending that he didn't love Jack.

He felt warm, reassuring hands fall softly onto his shoulders, and turned to see Jack half-smiling at him.

"If we don't get going soon we'll never get anywhere." He said, light and joking but still with an underlying sense of urgency.

Ianto simply said the first thing he thought of.

"I don't want to lose you."

Jack didn't let Ianto see what those words meant to him. Instead he just chuckled and tried to make Ianto feel less panicked.

"You won't have to as long as you get that ass into gear."

He didn't quite expect the hg that Ianto pulled him into, but as he was squeezed tightly in the other man's arms he closed his eyes and let himself pretend for a moment that he wouldn't lose Ianto to the lure of his old life and his old world. He didn't want their time to end, but he knew it had to.

"Oi! Lovebirds! You better get a move on or the cameras will be back on you idiots!"

Moment broken, Jack broke the embrace and glared at Owen, the bastard, who was grinning as he leant against the doorframe.

He sighed a little and then grabbed Ianto's hand and strode from the room, making sure that no one was coming down the corridor or the stairs as the ascended them. Reaching the top and checking the coast was clear, he turned to Owen and shouted to him over Ianto's shoulder.

"We're going to go out the back way and around to the road that way, as long as I can stay away from the guys who should be loitering in here. You go past Harold's office, make sure everything's okay there, and then follow us out and meet us in the lay by, okay?"

Owen grinned and nodded, giving him a thumbs up and ruffling Ianto's hair in a way that was plainly meant to irritate, before he jogged off down the corridor.

Jack smiled again at Ianto in a bid to reassure him, and then led off down their corridor, hopefully to freedom.

* * *

Tosh was biting her fingernails as she looked between all the camera feeds she had set up in front of her, hoping that nothing would go wrong. She was trying to convince herself that everything would be fine, but she was silently preparing a plan to distract the blond rodent like man who had stayed in his office, as predicted, studying files, if anything went wrong or they needed more time. She had long ago figured out the layout of the house she was watching, and knew exactly which cameras she should short out completely or freeze the picture of on this Harold's monitors if Owen and his friends needed more time. She was banking on him going to try and see what was wrong if he suddenly saw a camera not showing anything at all.

But she leaned back against her chair, forcing herself t remover her hands from her mouth as she calmed herself with the thought that she and Owen had planned everything, and she was sure nothing could go wrong.

Her eyes followed him as he ran along a corridor on one camera and then burst into view in another one as he bounded down a flight of stairs that led to a cellar, the one place in the building she couldn't see. Owen disappeared into the room a little, then backed up into the doorway and leaned on the doorframe as he spoke. Her lip reading was far too underdeveloped to be able to tell what he was saying, but after a second's pause he grinned again, the one that made her heart turn in her chest, and then leaned in the doorway for a moment before backing out and up the corridor towards her.

Following him was a man who she guessed to be about the same age, with dark brown hair that seemed spiked up at the front, but which she could only see from the back. Following him was a slighter man in very different clothes. He seemed to be wearing a tailored suit to the first man's long military coat, in a grey shade that she vaguely recognised.

She flicked her eyes to the camera feed from Harold's office again, watching him as he took a gulp of whisky from the bottle sat on his desk, the Jack Daniels label peeling off. It wa sonly as she absentmindedly let her eyes follow his movements around his office that a thought struck her.

She focused her attention back onto the camera showing the trench-coated man and the suited one hand in hand as they jogged down another corridor, this one connecting the sitting room and the kitchen.

It couldn't be.

But as she studied the back of the suited man's head, trying to see if she recognised anything else, he turned, moving his face into profile as he shouted something at his companion.

It was him. It was Ianto

She would know that face anywhere.

* * *

Panting hard, Owen rounded the corner of the building before sprinting up the dirt track that was the back entrance to the property, praying with all his might that the returning mercenaries and lackeys hadn't seen him as he escaped.

He slowed down as he reached the road, staggering into the lay by where he had left his car, hoping that Ianto and Jack would already be there. After a moment of panic they made into view, pressed up against the side of his car in each other's arms. He nearly made another snarky comment, but decided to let them have their moment.

He just took one last look at the house through the trees, looking at the sprawling ground floor and all those corridors covering the room that Ianto had been held captive in, before unlocking his own door and getting in, hoping that they would get the hint and follow him.

When they didn't he just gave up and thumped on the passenger side window, making Jack jump and then stick two fingers up at him as they both kissed each other again and then got into the car.

Jack had decided to sit in the back seat with Ianto on the journey to the police station, and he leaned over and entwined their hands, making eye contact with Ianto but saying nothing. He didn't want to ruin one of the last moments he was going to get with Ianto.

Ianto was feeling the same, not knowing what was going to happen after they got to the police station and he was completely free again. But he didn't want to dwell on it, so he just clasped Jack's hand tighter and leaned onto his shoulder while Owen drove into Cardiff.

He had closed his eyes and was so engrossed in the moment that it was a shock to him when Owen announced that they had arrived. From the way Jack suddenly sprung up in his seat, it was to him as well.

"Okay, Ianto and I will go in. Owen, you shouldn't have been involved in this at all and I don't want you involved even more now. Once we get out, please just drive away and don't come back okay? I'll ring you when I can." Jack said, his face solemn as he faced his friend.

Owen looked as if he was about to protest, until Jack implored "Please Owen."

Ianto could see the begrudging acquiescence in Owen's eyes and he took the initiative to unstrap himself and open the door, getting out as Jack started to do the same, thanking Owen as he did so.

After watching to make sure Owen drove away completely, Jack turned once again to look at Ianto with sadness badly concealed in his gaze, and it killed Ianto to have to just nod at him and then walk calmly towards the doors of the station.

Once inside they were met with a bustle of activity, normal police business a flurry of activity around them, until a shout stopped all the noise and movement dead.

"Ianto! Ianto Jones!"

The desk clerk was pointing at them, a look of shock on his face, and for split second nothing happened, and they simply stared back.

Then everything seemed to go by in fast forward, as Ianto was surrounded by police officers all trying to grasp his arm, pull him over to the seating area, speaking what were presumably words of comfort to him as they were dragged apart.

Jack, on the other hand, was pounced upon by the police officers not surrounding Ianto, dragged to the floor and his hands dragged behind his back and cuffed. He had resigned himself to this fate once he decided to help Ianto escape, and whilst it hurt to be arrested knowing he wouldn't see Ianto again he was happy knowing that Ianto was free, and could go back to the life he deserved.

But it was just as his cheek met the cold linoleum of the floor that he heard a strangled shout that made his heart clench.

"Let him go! LET HIM GO! He didn't do this, he didn't hurt me! Let him go, let me see him!"

Jack's eyes flew open just in time to see Ianto launch himself across the room, tearing free of the officers trying to restrain him from doing so, and started to pull at the ones holding Jack down. He would never forgive himself for tearing up as Ianto finally got to him, elbowing an officer aside to grasp his face in both hands and lean down and kiss him before saying what Jack thought he would never hear.

"I love him. I love you Jack."

* * *

**A/N: You might have noticed, but I didn't want to spoil it at the start; that was the last chapter of The Perfect Gentleman. Although it may seem rushed, i can promise you that my intention from the start of this fic was to tell the story of the kidnapping and no more. The bulk of the story ends here, as it was supposed to showcase the bond that can form in a small space of time, without the elaboration of a continuation. That said, i will definitely be doing an epilogue that will tie up loose ends, so to speak, so don't fret. However, I can't promise it will be very soon. I'm currently starting exam preparation for my A-Levels, and I really need to get my grades - I have an offer from Oxford University to study Law next year, and I CANNOT miss out because of bad grades, it would devastate me.**

**But thank you for reading this and sticking with me as far as you have, even with my erratic and elongated posting schedule (note to self: write the entire thing before you post next time!) and I really do hope you've enjoyed it.**

**Comments are welcomed and please tell me your thoughts whatever they are.**

**Thanks, Kate/Rose x**


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